Ron Peters's Reviews > Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

This is a well-written, moving, and important book. One of Wilkerson’s core ideas is that there is a hidden caste system in America and that this system overrides race, class, and gender. I disagree with that one point.

Caste interacts heavily with race, class, and gender, with each having important and, in some degree, distinct effects. By under-emphasizing this reality, Wilkerson downplays the implicit community of interest among the several groups at the base of the social pyramid.

This helps keep impoverished whites and non-whites, for example, from attaining the solidarity they need to challenge the hegemony of society’s dominant groups. This supports members of the dominant class in their position by helping them divide and conquer those they suppress.