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A review by teokajlibroj
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
2.0
It's hard to rate this book because it did make some good points about an important issue, but the writing was poor. The analogies in particular were very clunky and dragged on too long to make a basic point.
The structure was also a mess, there was no clear organisation of the chapters and it constantly jumped forward and backwards in time between slavery, Jim Crow and modern times. The author made a lot of sweeping generalisations and relied heavily on anecdotes, frequently assuming racism was the sole cause of events without considering any other factor. This lead to moments of bizarre juxtaposition such as when a rude woman in a restaurant is compared to slaves having their children taken from them.
Also, the blurb implies this is a comparative study of India, Nazi Germany and the USA, but 90% of it is about America.
The structure was also a mess, there was no clear organisation of the chapters and it constantly jumped forward and backwards in time between slavery, Jim Crow and modern times. The author made a lot of sweeping generalisations and relied heavily on anecdotes, frequently assuming racism was the sole cause of events without considering any other factor. This lead to moments of bizarre juxtaposition such as when a rude woman in a restaurant is compared to slaves having their children taken from them.
Also, the blurb implies this is a comparative study of India, Nazi Germany and the USA, but 90% of it is about America.