Isabel Wilkerson

This book should be required reading in every high school and college in the United States. Courses could be crafted around this topic and then use this book as a guidepost during the year. Yes, it is that important of a book. I implore anyone considering reading this book to do so.

There are some personal comments and stories that the author relates that I think are nitpicking. For instance, she tells of an issue that she had while flying. She states, and I am paraphrasing here, "I fly frequently for work and I am usually the only female or member of the minority caste on the airplane." I have been in the travel industry for decades and have traveled all over the world. Not once I have ever been on a plane where there was only one woman or one person of color. Not once. Never. So I take these comments, which are frequent in this book, with several pounds of salt, not a grain.… (mer)

Adapted for teens from the 2020 adult bestseller, this timely work urges readers to complicate conversations around American race and class divisions.

“What does racist mean in an era when even extremists won’t admit to it?” asks Wilkerson, who introduces readers to caste, “an artificial construction” not solely based on race or class but “a fixed and embedded ranking of human value.” In America, she writes, there’s a “shape-shifting, unspoken, race-based caste pyramid” persisting through generations. The parallels between caste and race are palpable throughout the book, though, Wilkerson writes, they “are neither synonymous nor mutually exclusive.” Unlike race, which is a mutable social concept, and class, which can shift through luck and achievement, the author makes the case for caste as a permanent fixture which can be traced to the 1619 arrival of enslaved Africans in the Virginia Colony. Prior to defining caste rankings and outlining its eight pillars, Wilkerson draws comparisons between India and the United States, referencing the treatment of Adivasi and Native Americans, Dalits and African Americans. Additionally, the book provides provocative insights into America’s influence on Nazi Germany, whose researchers carefully studied U.S. race laws. Vignettes and memoir intertwine, illuminating the book’s arguments. With easy-to-digest storytelling and elaborate metaphors embedded in extensive research, Wilkerson challenges readers to resist validating any semblance of hierarchy and to refer to history as a pathway for eradicating its stronghold.

Compelling and accessible for a younger generation energized to build a better world. (index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

-Kirkus Review… (mer)