具體描述
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • The Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.
“An instant American classic.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
“As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power—which groups have it and which do not.”
In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.
Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people—including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others—she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.
Beautifully written, original, and revealing, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is an eye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of American life today.
用戶評價
##Africa has no black people.
評分##最打動我的反而不是長篇說理，而是瑣碎日常中的microaggression。那些隱隱作痛的歧視，全部都經曆過。
評分##缺乏分析力度，但依然是一口氣讀完的那類書。在美國十餘年，是就讀於南方私校的中國學生，是混跡於性彆與種族不平等行業的亞裔女性，卻終於自己找瞭這些該聽過的故事來聽。
評分##比較瞭美國、印度、德國的“Caste”，用“Caste”來分析美國的racism，有很多具體的殘酷的例子和作者的親身經曆，"The issue of caste was, to my mind, the basis of every other -ism" (171).這是她這本書有意思的地方之一，“the issue of Caste”指的是那八個pillars，也指人們先是divide然後rank (assign values to different position)的思維方式。如果critical一點來說，我覺得她太樂觀瞭，而對有兩個例子（教授和奧巴馬）的分析似乎仍然含有作為知識分子的優越感，在想要廢除一種ranking的同時又維護另一種ranking
評分##[有聲書] 原來燈塔早就是燈塔瞭，也怪不得民逗一個個都現瞭黃皮兒納粹的原形。 PS: 不看短評區還真不知道我國人民群眾的美國黑人歷史基礎已經這麼深厚，對這種大雜燴式的綜述已經可以不屑一顧瞭。
評分##筆力是真好，但是也真的毫無邏輯架構和內容深度，完全就是一整本African American受苦受罪事實堆砌史。 還以為能看到一些為什麼當代美國社會如此分裂的深度解讀，但是完全沒有。光是史實和事件堆砌我不需要花這麼多時間看這本啊，沒有分析和想法的輸齣也太偷懶瞭吧…
評分##[有聲書] 原來燈塔早就是燈塔瞭，也怪不得民逗一個個都現瞭黃皮兒納粹的原形。 PS: 不看短評區還真不知道我國人民群眾的美國黑人歷史基礎已經這麼深厚，對這種大雜燴式的綜述已經可以不屑一顧瞭。
評分###BLM 我已經說倦瞭。
評分##People around the world known CASTE IS TALKING ABOUT AFRICA and has nothing to do with America (RACISM related instead). The weirdest thing is she compared US with Nazi….and I am so confused what is she want to talk about. Cuz she is writing a book making no sense and filling of her point of views.
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