There are certain times when a call to action is heard. For me, in 1993 when I heard that I should consider all problems or issues in my community with the response – I am the problem. I am the solution. I am the resource. – I started on a journey continuing to this day. Six years later, the massacre at Columbine High School re-galvanized these efforts and started a writing journey continuing also to this day. I am sure that there are intervening “epiphanies,” but I am inclined to highlight a recent movie.
ORIGIN, based on the creation of the book CASTE: THE ORIGINS OF OUR DISCONTENTS by Isabel Wilkerson1, is a stunning, gripping and riveting account of Ms. Wilkerson’s exploration of racism in America. But it is far broader than that. It details her revelations equating our racism to the caste system in India and Nazi Germany. It shows how racism in America is more than just skin color and how it serves to reenforce stereotypes which drive social behavior and the pernicious exclusion of certain groups based on the biases of those in power.
In my past writings, I have chosen to highlight some of the issues regarding racism in America.2-6 I have always tried to walk a fine line between outrage and making an emphatic point. In our divisive society, outrage is all too common and counterproductive. Yet, sometimes just emphasizing inequities seems too tame in a society that is creeping back into its old and dangerous ways.
Those of us with hopefully trusted voices must speak out and highlight a more progressive path forward. The term progressive has acquired a pejorative meaning that is purely the purposeful twisting of the term by certain folks intent to demean those seeking a better life for others. How progress became a dirty word is beyond me and invokes a sadness that must be overcome.
One of the discussions near the beginning of CASTE uses the medical analogy. Indeed, it is perfect comparison. Diagnosis and treatment are only possible after a thorough history and physical exam.
“When we go to the doctor, he or she will not begin to treat us without taking our history—and not just our history but that of our parents and grandparents before us…As we fill out the pages of our medical past and our current complaints, what our bodies have been exposed to and what they have survived, it does us no good to pretend that certain ailments have not beset us, to deny the full truths of what brought us to this moment. Few problems have ever been solved by ignoring them…[Similarly when] looking beneath the history of one’s country,…you don’t ball up in a corner with guilt or shame [or]… forbid any mention of them. In fact, you do the opposite…You learn the consequences and obstacles, the options and treatments.”1(pp13-14)
To see how we can progress and improve the lives of all of our citizens, we have “to learn, the consequences and obstacles, the options and treatment.” To be “woke” in this regard is the calling of our lifetimes. To accept Ms. Wilkerson’s challenge that the systemic racism in America is more than color-based and purposely places certain groups of people over others, eventually subjugating the others to a lower caste, is a crucial first step. Her central thesis, recognizing the similarities with Nazi Germany (the subjugation and dehumanization of Jews) and the “untouchables” (now referred to as Dalits) in India, places racism in America at the forefront of issues to be recognized and resolved over time. We cannot “ball up in a corner with guilt or shame” nor can we “forbid any mention of them.” A chilling revelation in her work is that the architects of the Nazi Germany plan to rid themselves of Jews was predicated in part by laws in the US from the Jim Crow era. Indeed, we provided a blueprint for others but have chosen to ignore our complicity.
It is my intent to spend several blog posts discussing the content of CASTE. First though, I want to highlight the Eight Pillars of Caste that Ms. Wilkerson identified to highlight the discussions to come.
- Divine Will and the Laws of Nature – in both India and America, a perversion of ancient sacred texts have allowed the subjugation of others, even with bondage of men, women and children. It is ironic that both of these countries are democracies.
- Heritability – social hierarchy is largely determined at birth and the lines of demarcation remain clear thereafter. Some legislation in America has even codified this.
- Endogamy and the Control of Marriage and Mating – the restriction of marriage to within the same caste (endogamy) was a surefire way to continue artificial divisions of people and “blocks the chance for empathy or a sense of shared destiny”1(p 109) for our fellow citizens.
- Purity versus Pollution – all three societies under Wilkerson’s microscope (America, Nazi Germany and India) were concerned about their own purity and the possible contamination by those that are less pure. Remember all of the swimming pools in the South that banned black people for fear of contamination and those artificial attempts at defining Negroes by the percentage of the admixture of African blood. It takes generations for those concepts to be eradicated.
- Occupational Hierarchy – those in lower castes were isolated to specific tasks that were considered menial and below others. They were usually some of the more dirty and demeaning jobs. Thus, caste perpetuated cycles of generations of people being in subservient roles.
- Dehumanization and Stigma – when people are dehumanized, they are not only made to feel subhuman but are often subjected to experimentation because of their inferior state. One need look no farther than the cruel medical experiments on American Blacks or Jews in Nazi Germany to realize that these acts can occur with frightening impunity when we accept subhuman labels (and the attached stigma) for others.
- Terror as Enforcement, Cruelty as a Means of Control – terror and cruelty are well recognized for their numbing effect to put people in their place and keep them there.
- Inherent Superiority versus Inherent Inferiority – the natural counterpart to subjugating a group of people is the belief that the controllers are superior to them and the others are inferior.
The above eight pillars of caste will serve as a stepping off point for further discussion. One might find this material uncomfortable and wish to avoid it. I hope not. One might consider this material poppycock or progressive blather and choose to ignore it. I believe this latter approach runs counter to the path chosen by people of faith. People of faith should be open to inquiry as they seek understanding and a path toward greater service to others.
We cannot choose ignorance as the logical response to Ms. Wilkerson’s work. Watch the movie ORIGIN and be ready to be moved. Inaction is just unacceptable and far worse than “blissful ignorance.” Blissful ignorance is not blissful and chooses to accept man’s inhumanity toward others as tolerable. I cannot believe that that is our role in this life. Do not accept labels such as vermin or animals for other people. A purposeful system of exclusion is antithetical to the world I want to live in.
- Wilkerson I: Caste: The Origins of our Discontents. Random House; 2020. 476 pp.
- https://mychildrenschildren.com/woke-im-in/
- https://mychildrenschildren.com/racial-inequity-it-cannot-be-whitewashed/
- https://mychildrenschildren.com/remember-redlining/
- https://mychildrenschildren.com/communal-forgiveness-2/
- https://mychildrenschildren.com/civil-rights-struggles-and-2020-election-denials/