A Better Way To Understand Black Oppression In America: A Caste System (Diane Rehm, On My Mind)

It’s a term generally associated with India, a country that has ancient and multi-layered class categories.

Here in the U.S., the history is very different. But author Isabel Wilkerson says when it comes to understanding the oppression of Black people in this country, caste, not racism, is the better word.

Caste, says Wilkerson, is a hierarchy that dictates where people stand in society – who gets access to resources or even the benefit of the doubt.

Isabel Wilkerson’s new book is called “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.”

She is also the author of the “Warmth of Other Suns” and she was the first Black woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for journalism in 1994 as the Chicago bureau chief for the New York Times.
Interview:
https://dianerehm.org/shows/2020-08-25/a-better-way-to-understand-black-oppression-in-america-a-caste-system