Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

22 reviews

arthur_harris's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

This book pulls absolutely no punches. It lays out the facts of its subject matter with a kind of frank, unflinching look at the truth that is so constantly softened and blunted in history. Deeply, grimly informative on the true history of the Black experience in the United States. A harsh reality check for those - like me - who grew up with a whitewashed view of American history. While this book is a difficult read in many ways, that is part of what makes it such a necessary one. It forces the reader to examine the deeply ingrained racism baked into the foundation of America, and the subsequent role of the (non-Black) reader in that racist system. An absolutely vital piece of literature. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Police brutality, Child abuse, Cultural appropriation, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Colonisation, Slavery, Blood, Medical trauma, Racism, Child death, and Murder

jess_westhafer's review against another edition

I felt like I got everything out of this book I was going to in the pages I read. The ideas started to seem redundant, and I didn’t feel the need to keep going. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Antisemitism, Violence, Slavery, and Torture

youreawizardjerry's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Physical abuse, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Genocide, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Blood, Bullying, Body horror, Slavery, Violence, Police brutality, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Gun violence, Death, and Death of parent

atamano's review against another edition

challenging dark informative medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Torture, Classism, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Hate crime, Genocide, Slavery, Physical abuse, Violence, and Racism

ebrown0789's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

This book was eye-opening. My only complaint is that I felt there were way too many analogies towards the beginning.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Slavery

Moderate: Violence, Gore, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Hate crime, Body horror, Child abuse, Genocide, and Physical abuse

Minor: Police brutality

tlilf's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

shanflan's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

It is extremely important that we face the horrific reality of our past (and present) to hope for a better future. I learned so much. Everyone should read this.

Wilkerson's prose along with her incorporation of research, history, and anecdotes cemented the ideas in each chapter. 

The unspeakable torture and separations from family that those forced into slavery endured and even the lynchings of the jim crow era seem so far in the past, but to this day the casual disregard for black life is ubiquitous as shown by the thousands of police and vigilante shootings of unarmed black citizens. But it's not only this outward display of hatred/racism that upholds the caste system; just as important are the unconscious biases, the silent compliance of the upper caste and the desire of the upper caste to keep their place as if life is a zero-sum game.

Some of the most striking moments for me:
-The notion that race is really an arbitrary social construct created in America.
- I had no idea how much inspiration the Nazis took from America in the classification and treatment of the lowest caste (noting that "the one-drop rule was too harsh for the Nazis")
-2022 marks the first year that the U.S. will have been an independent nation for as long as slavery lasted on its soil.
-The story of the little boy who wasn't allowed to swim with his baseball team but was eventually allowed to make one lap atop a floating device only after everyone else got out of the pool, reminding him "just don't touch the water"
-That the south still displays statues of confederate leaders who many are proud of rather than ashamed of, and how connected these symbols of slavery are to the notion that the upper caste will do anything to keep their perceived superiority, as shown by the 2016 election.

This was a very challenging read, but I like how Wilkerson ends the novel with a sentiment of hope. As a white person, I know that empathy is no substitute for experience itself, but with privilege comes the responsibility of allyship, and "the moral duty to act when one sees another person treated unfairly".

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Slavery, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Murder, Hate crime, and Antisemitism

elly29's review against another edition

challenging dark informative slow-paced

4.0

Informative. Particularly interesting to read this in parallel Haidt's "The Righteous Mind," which goes over how we developed our groupishness and how we continue to groupish cohesion, among other things. Some of it, as a privileged person living in the dominant caste, was difficult to hear. In particular was the constant comparison to the Southern United States and Nazi Germany; indeed, I did not know that Germany had modeled many of their practices and institutions on the American South. I also am horrified at the details surrounding lynching. For those with weak stomachs, skip that section.

I have a better appreciation for how intrinsic and invested racism is within American society. I think sometimes Wilkerson can be myopic, roundabout in her points, and excessive in her metaphors -- for example, she should've acknowledged earlier that European immigrants, though they themselves might've experienced racism, were able to assimilate after a generation, and she does indeed make the point that that was accomplished through distancing themselves from Black folk. However, her research is thorough, and she brings up many good points and examples about race, class, and caste within the United States. I'm particularly interested in Ambitkar, the Indian equivalent of Martin Luther King, Jr, and in Allison David's and the Gardners' "Deep South," a sociological study of caste while living covertly under it. They were some brave folk.

In terms of the writing, by the time we got to chapters in the twenties, it seemed like it had just become a litany of all the ways in which someone was denied expressing the full measure of their skill and mastery. Which, chapter after chapter, is depressing. The conclusion and epilogue kind of brought it back into analysis and calls to action.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, and Trafficking

frenchiesquared's review against another edition

informative sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, and Torture

So very difficult but necessary for all to read.

julied's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Rape, Slavery, and Torture