Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

[David Heimann (heimann]

Hello Carol,

	I've read "Caste" as well, and agree with you that she has a 
variable usage of caste.  For example, the Nazi caste system lasted only 
12 years rather than centuries, but did much more damage than any of the 
others.  Also, the U.S. system is the only one that is based on outright 
slavery, with the heritage of that slavery being still active 160 years 
after its abolition, leaving in place a caste system similar to that of 
India.  South Africa's system was different from what India and the U.S. 
have, lasting only decades rather than centuries or milennia and 
disappearing once the government that enforced it disappeared.

	Looking at her descriptions, I would focus on India's system and 
America's post-slavery system.

Regards,
David Heimann
JP Cohousing


> Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2023 04:02:18 +0000 (UTC)
> From: carol collier <doctor5622no [at] yahoo.com>
> To: <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
> Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
> Message-ID: <1511870397.2403433.1679284938293 [at] mail.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> I read both her books. In Caste, she left me confused due to, what 
> appeared to me to be, her interchangeable usage of caste and race 
> throughout the book.?

>    On Sunday, March 19, 2023, 05:27:31 PM HST, Kathy Ahlers <kathy [at] 
> tccoho.org> wrote:
>
> Sharon, I'm also in the process of reading "Caste" by Isabel Wilkerson.
> Has anyone else on this list read it, or would like to soon start? Maybe we
> could form an online book group and meet via Zoom to discuss it, and how
> it relates to cohousing.
>
> Kathy
>
> Kathy Ahlers
> President, board of directors
> Twin Cities Cohousing Network (MN), a 501c3 organization
> pronouns: she/her/hers
> tccoho.org
> Follow us on Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/TwinCitiesCohousing/?ref=nf>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 16, 2023 at 6:44?PM Sharon Villines via Cohousing-L <
> cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:
>
> > Just started reading "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents" by Isabel
> > Wilkerson. The paperback has just been released:
> >
> > https://amzn.to/3yNl0Rv
> >
> > ?Caste" is incredible. I?ve only begun reading and have listened to
> > interviews with Wilkerson, but important to me is that she has explained my
> > own resistance to viewing racism as _the_ problem. Since race is an
> > invented social construction, why do we keep enforcing it by discussing it?
> > Efforts to eradicate it have failed miserably ? on all sides. As many cling
> > to it as a definition of self, others think it should be just canceled. But
> > we can?t seem to educate people out of it. Approaching it as a ?class?
> > issue is only substituting another social construction that is as subject
> > to interpretation as skin color.
> >
> > Wilkerson defines the issue straight on as a caste system. Race or the
> > idea of race, black and/or white, was invented to enforce a
> > self-perpetuating caste system that is pervasive and all of encompassing.
> >
> > We avoid looking at history and don?t even know our history because caste
> > is so fundamental to all our lives. She goes deep into history and reveals
> > more than most of us, even those who have read extensively, have known
> > about the who, what, when, why, and how.
> >
> > The first Africans were brought to the US _before_ the Puritans arrived,
> > for example. There was no government, no America. When the government was
> > formed African Americans were Americans as much as anyone else. The legal
> > documents were written to change that. Thus our national identity was
> > structured from the beginning to justify and retain the caste system of
> > free labor. ?White? is also a social construct and was necessary to
> > establish and enforce the caste system. Until we understand the
> > complexities of that ? the way it defines and limits everyone, we won?t be
> > able to unhinge the system.
> >
> > That is the key that I?ve been missing. I?ve studied how the British
> > embedded and reinforced the caste system in India and North Africa. They
> > use the ?whites? to ?control? the "blacks.? They had to create white in
> > order to define black. Some white populations are living in fear of losing
> > privileges that they actually don?t have and never had.
> >
> > Wilkerson defines this so well and has such wonderful metaphors and
> > illustrative examples that I?m stunned as I reflect on my life from this
> > perspective. It?s like reading David Graeber and rearranging everything
> > I?ve learned about pre-history and oppressive states.
> >
> > The effect of analyzing how caste plays out in cohousing, I think will be
> > in very different ways than we have imagined race playing out. It is a more
> > fundamental identification of the problem allowing us to approach it
> > differently.
> >
> > Sharon
> > ----
> > Sharon Villines
> > Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
> > http://www.takomavillage.org
> >
> >
> >
> >
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