ONLINE - Book Discussion: Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

It has been ten years since Wilkerson’s award-winning The Warmth of Other Suns was published. While that book pointed to the great migration of Black people to the north, this new book points to our entire social structure as an unrecognized caste system. Most people see America as racist and Wilkerson agrees. She points out we tend to refer to slavery as a “sad, dark chapter” in America when in fact it has lasted for hundreds of years—with a social order whereby it was necessary to give Blacks the lowest possible status and Whites in turn got top status. In between came the middle castes of “Asians, Latinos, Indigenous people, and immigrants of African descent.” Such a caste system allowed generations of whites to live under the same assumptions of inequality—whether their ancestors were slave owners or abolitionists. And, the unspoken caste system has encouraged all to accept their roles.

The Nonfictioneers book discussion group meets on the first Tuesday of the month via Zoom (while the Library is doing online programs only) to discuss classic and contemporary non-fiction titles.

Click here to see a full list of titles to be discussed in 2021. Please register below to receive the Zoom link.