PDF Summary:Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson

In Caste, Isabel Wilkerson argues that the racial tensions in the United States are better explained through the lens of caste, not race—a 400-year-old hierarchy placing white people at the top and Black people at the bottom. Wilkerson examines the different caste systems around the world and how they damage the lives of everyone involved, even those at the top. She believes that to understand how to move forward, we must examine the past and the racial structures that keep progress as a nation at bay.

In this guide, we’ll explore the basics of Wilkerson’s caste theory, the eight tenets of a caste system, how the caste system affects the lives of people in the upper and lower castes, and how we can move away from caste and create a more equitable society. We’ll also compare Wilkerson’s ideas to those of other books on the subject of race, such as Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow.

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(Shortform note: Not all definitions of caste agree that all eight of these tenets are needed for a caste system to form. For instance, the Encyclopedia Britannica defines caste systems as “ranked, hereditary, endogamous social groups, often linked with occupation,” which encompasses just three of Wilkerson’s eight tenets. It’s possible that this definition is more limited because it focuses more specifically on the Indian caste system whereas Wilkerson seeks to define caste systems more generally.)

We’ve renumbered the eight tenets for logical flow. The first two tenets describe justifications for the caste system; the next four relate to maintaining the system; and the final two describe how the dominant caste mistreats the lower caste in each system.

Tenet 1: Laws of Divinity

According to the author, when a belief system is said to be the will of God, it becomes nearly impossible to argue against the legitimacy of its claims. The will of an all-knowing spiritual power is at the heart of both the Indian and American castes. (Shortform note: Avatthi Ramaiah, an Indian sociologist, agrees with Wilkerson’s argument that divine justification upholds the caste system. He argues, “As long as Hinduism is strong, caste will be strong, and as long as there is caste, there will be lower caste.”)

Tenet 2: Ingrained Superiority

According to the author, no caste system could survive without the collective belief in the unequivocal superiority of one caste over another. This belief was and is still at the heart of every interaction between the dominant caste and subordinate caste in America.

(Shortform note: How do people in the upper caste uphold this sense of ingrained superiority? Robin DiAngelo argues it’s through what she calls “the ideology of individualism.” In White Fragility, she claims that white people reassure themselves of their own superiority by telling themselves that all their successes were earned through hard work, and that people who are less successful just haven’t worked as hard. White people who embrace this ideology conclude that they must simply be naturally superior to people of color, ignoring the fact that people of color face barriers to success that white people don’t (such as racial prejudice and economic inequalities).)

Tenet 3: Dehumanization at the Group Level

According to Wilkerson, even with the other tenets in place, there’s always the possibility that reality might slip into the social consciousness and expose the injustice of how the subordinate class is treated. To keep this from happening, she argues, the dominant caste must change the collective view of the subordinates from humans to objects. If society sees the underclass as mere objects, the abhorrent actions taken against them become more palatable. (Shortform note: According to psychologist Paul Bloom, Wilkerson is correct to frame mass dehumanization as a deliberate strategy on the part of the upper caste. This contradicts the previous, widespread assumption that people in power inadvertently dehumanized others because they genuinely believed they were less than human.)

Tenet 4: Laws of Heritage

According to the author, a caste system can only work if there are clear laws to determine who belongs in each caste. Wilkerson argues that the best way to do this was to identify someone’s caste at birth. Thus, ancestral lines became another way to maintain the rankings of each group. Whatever caste you were born into would be yours for life and that of all generations to follow. (Shortform note: This is still true in many places. For example, as recently as 2018, the Indian Supreme Court ruled that whatever caste a person is born into is their caste for life—even if they marry someone from a different caste.)

Tenet 5: Laws of Love

According to Wilkerson, the third step in maintaining the caste structure is to ban interracial relationships. Endogamy is the restriction of marriage to only those from the same caste.

Wilkerson believes that the purpose of endogamy is to protect the dominant caste’s bloodline and emphasize the differences between the different castes. When families are isolated according to caste, a person’s interest or investment in the lives of other families diminishes. In not sharing the landscape of love and family building, members of the dominant caste have little reason to be concerned about the happiness and satisfaction of the lowest caste’s livelihood. Furthermore, the bans on relations among castes enable the dominant caste to curate the type of population they want.

(Shortform note: This is an instance of Wilkerson focusing on the social logic of the caste system rather than the economic motivations behind it. Wilkerson highlights how endogamy laws prevented social ties between people of different castes, but other scholars have noted another purpose for these laws: They prevent upper-caste people from passing property or resources down to lower-caste people. This helps to ensure that the highest caste maintains control of the country’s resources.)

Tenet 6: The Purity of the Dominant Caste

Wilkerson argues that for all the other tenets of a caste system to be upheld, the dominant caste must define their race in an irreproachable way and safeguard that definition at all costs. The easiest way to create this unassailable distinction is through a sense of racial purity that can be compromised by the mere presence of a lower-caste person. Wilkerson describes how, in India, the Untouchables had to keep a certain number of feet away from the dominant caste. Likewise, segregation in America kept Black Americans isolated from the dominant caste in almost every facet of life.

(Shortform note: While Wilkerson suggests that this tenet was implemented similarly in each caste system, that wasn’t the case. The Nazi caste system arguably put more emphasis on “racial purity” than the Indian or American systems—while these systems merely sought to enforce the boundaries between castes, the Nazis’ ultimate goal was to create a 100% “pure” German race by eliminating any possible threats to the Aryan bloodline through mass murder. They called this the “Final Solution.”)

Tenet 7: Division of Labor

The building of a society requires labor; according to the author, in a caste structure, the division of labor determines who will build the foundation and who will use that foundation to thrive. The menial tasks required to lay the foundation for progress are given to the subordinate caste, solidifying their place as the backs on which everyone else steps. This is true in both India and the United States.

(Shortform note: The author doesn’t go into detail about how this tenet applied in Nazi Germany. The Nazis established forced labor camps where Jews and other prisoners worked for no pay under inhumane conditions. This served two purposes for the Nazi regime: It created a constant supply of laborers to do the nation’s most backbreaking jobs, and it was a tool of the “Final Solution” because prisoners were often literally worked to death.)

Tenet 8: Terror and Violence

In addition to relegating them to the lowest jobs, Wilkerson argues that physical violence and psychological terror are two strategies dominant castes use to keep the subordinate caste in line. With both behaviors, the dominant caste reminds the subordinate caste of their place in society and their power over them. (Shortform note: The science of trauma supports Wilkerson’s point here. In The Body Keeps the Score, psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk describes how trauma (such as enduring constant violence and terror from the upper caste) creates a sense of learned helplessness. In other words, in the face of unrelenting violence, members of the lower caste may feel too trapped and hopeless to fight back.)

Part 3: The Influence of Caste Systems on Individuals and Society

So far, we’ve learned the basics of Wilkerson’s theory of caste and the eight tenets that support a caste system. In Part 3, we’ll learn about the lasting impacts of caste systems on individuals and society.

When Caste Tensions Erupt

According to the author, caste tensions in post-Civil Rights era America simmered beneath the surface until the 21st century, when they erupted into vocal, explicit racism. Why did this happen? Wilkerson argues it’s because the changing landscape of justice after the Civil Rights Movement likely created aftershocks in lower- and middle-class white Americans’ sense of security in their status. They were suddenly faced with a different reality than that of their parents and grandparents, who’d enjoyed privileges because of their white skin in both the social and economic spheres. Many felt that their main source of identity—their superior status as white—was slipping through their fingers. Without it, they’d be forced to accept the realities of their difficult economic situation without the comfort of upper-caste superiority.

(Shortform note: Additionally, in Strangers in Their Own Land, Arlie Hochschild describes how this sudden loss of status and identity happened at the same moment that people from marginalized groups (such as women, people of color, and LGBTQ people) were beginning to celebrate and find value in their identities. This was an unacceptable role reversal for many white Southerners.)

Rather than face this existential crisis head-on, Wilkerson argues, many white Americans turned their discomfort with subordinate advances into rage. They angrily believed that the rising status of Black people meant a lower status for white people—and a threat to their very existence. (Shortform note: This zero-sum mentality can be dangerous. For example, the white man who murdered nine people at a historically Black church in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015 was motivated by the fact that “Blacks were taking over the world” and felt he needed to defend the white race.)

Political Ramifications

According to the author, the first harbinger of renewed racial animosity was the 2008 election of Democrat Barack Obama and the resulting vengeful quest by many white Americans to restore power to the dominant caste.

(Shortform note: Barack Obama’s successful campaign for the 2008 election presented such a threat to the established racial order that assassination was a looming threat. As a result, the Department of Homeland Security authorized Secret Service protection for then-Senator Obama beginning in 2007, a full 18 months before he was first elected president. This is the earliest any president has received Secret Service protection.)

Wilkerson describes how the number of hate groups in America doubled during Obama’s first term, as did anti-Black sentiments in mainstream society. The dream that Obama’s election was a sign of a post-racial America quickly evaporated. (Shortform note: Wilkerson is right to conclude that white reactions to Obama’s election caused the sudden surge in hate groups. One scholar found that the rate of new hate groups slowed significantly after 2016 because “Trump’s election signaled the closing of the perceived threats that drove hate groups to form during the Obama administration.”)

According to Wilkerson, the result of this resurgence of hate and anti-Black sentiment was increased violence against Black Americans. Harkening back to the days of Jim Crow lynchings, unarmed Black citizens were killed during encounters with law enforcement at an alarming rate. The number of incidents grew to such a degree that studies found that Blacks were five times more likely to be killed by police than whites were, making death at the hands of police a leading cause of death for Black males. Black men and boys suddenly had a 1 in 1,000 chance of dying at the hands of police officers.

(Shortform note: The data for deaths in police custody have additional nuances that Wilkerson doesn’t cover. Research shows that, overall, Black men are more than twice as likely to die at the hands of police officers than white men. However, age plays an important role: For white men, the risk of being killed by police is most concentrated between the ages of 20 and 35, after which it dwindles; for Black men, the risk stays high well into their 40s. This may be because, in general, people see Black men as more threatening than white men, so officers may perceive even older Black men as threats that require force to subdue.)

The 2016 Election Revealed Buried Resentments

In 2016, America prepared to vote for Obama’s successor. Wilkerson argues that this election was the catalyst that revealed the white resentment and deep-rooted racism that had built up during the Obama administration. As the 2016 election race picked up momentum, Donald Trump became the spokesperson for all the rage and fear felt by many white Americans for some time. His racist rhetoric spawned an ideology that empowered them to feel comfortable waving their prejudice flags. His followers became fiercely loyal and vocal about their similar desire to return America to a time when white supremacy was the norm.

Understanding Southern Trump Supporters’ Motivations

The reasons why people supported Trump are perhaps even more nuanced than Wilkerson suggests, as evidenced by the work of sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild, who interviewed conservative voters in the American South in the years leading up to the 2016 election. In Strangers in Their Own Land, Hochschild describes how the threat of losing majority race status reflects the loss of social status that white conservatives feel they’ve suffered as other groups (like women, people of color, and LGBTQ people) have gained more cultural power. For many southern white conservatives, the progress of groups who don’t share their traditional values feels like a deeply personal attack on their way of life.

According to Hochschild, this explains why many conservative voters continually vote “against their own interests” (meaning they vote for leaders and policies that negatively impact their quality of life): They’re voting in their own emotional interest by protecting their values and identity, even if that means voting against their own economic interests. This explains why working-class, Southern, white Americans voted for Trump in 2016, despite the fact that his economic policies catered to the richest Americans.

The Aftermath of the 2016 Election

According to Wilkerson, the mobilization of this faction of supporters was too great for Hillary Clinton to overcome. Donald Trump—and the return to upper caste dominance that he symbolized—won the day. As a result, violence against those in the middle and lower castes spiked across the country. Ultimately, 2017 became one of the deadliest years in history, with an onslaught of mass shootings in public places, including schools, concerts, and churches. (Shortform note: Hate crimes spiked from 6,121 reported incidents in 2016 to 7,175 incidents reported in 2017. According to FBI data, the number has continued to hover above seven thousand every year since.)

Wilkerson argues that perhaps the most telling evidence of the extreme division among Americans was the response to the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. president used the virus to spread anti-Chinese sentiments and blamed the media for inflating the severity of the virus, going as far as calling it a hoax. In the end, the virus grew at a faster rate in the United States than in any other country, leaving several hundred thousand dead and millions infected. (Shortform note: The coronavirus pandemic disproportionately impacted Black, Latinx, and Asian communities, further contributing to racial division in the United States. Additionally, anti-Asian hate crimes rose 145% from 2019 to 2020, and one study found a direct link between Trump’s pandemic rhetoric and a surge of online anti-Asian hate speech.)

Epilogue: A Shift Away From Caste

According to Wilkerson, the only way to dismantle caste in society is for each of us to open our minds and hearts enough to see how we’ve been manipulated into division. That’s because our actions and thoughts feed the machine of hate and prejudice based on superficial physical traits.

Wilkerson argues that no one chooses to be born into one caste or another, but we do choose whether to abide by the confines those castes dictate. A person born into the dominant caste can choose to uplift others in the subordinate caste. A person born into the subordinate caste can choose to break the barriers around them.

Dismantling Caste: Mindsets, Policies, or Both?

Other scholars disagree with Wilkerson’s conclusion that individual actions and mindsets are the driving force behind the caste system. For instance, in How to Be an Antiracist, Ibram X. Kendi argues that it’s impossible to dismantle American racism by ignoring policy and focusing on individual mindsets. Kendi believes we should focus on changing racist policies first rather than trying to educate people out of racist mindsets and hoping for downstream change.

There is a middle ground between these perspectives. In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo strikes a balance between Wilkerson’s focus on mindset and Kendi’s focus on policy. She lays out strategies for individuals to make policy changes (such as voting for antiracist candidates and supporting affirmative action policies) and develop an antiracist mindset by engaging with art and music from Black artists.

Toward Radical Empathy

Wilkerson reminds us that the subordinate caste is not responsible for constructing the caste system; therefore, they are not responsible for dismantling it. Instead, people in the dominant caste must take responsibility for the system and use their privilege to dismantle it. (Shortform note: In White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo also argues that the first step to dismantling the caste system is for white people to acknowledge the way they benefit from the current system. She goes further by saying that while acknowledging privilege can be uncomfortable, white people should lean into that discomfort and remember that it pales in comparison to the pain that experiencing racism causes.)

In Wilkerson’s view, dismantling caste once and for all requires radical empathy, which is more than just imagining what it’s like to walk in another’s shoes. Radical empathy is the active choice to educate ourselves about others’ experiences by listening to the personal accounts of those we don’t understand. We must acknowledge that our understanding of another’s life is shallow and only those living the experience have the right to qualify its effect on their lives. We can imagine what it would be like to have one arm, but we cannot tell someone with one arm how they should feel about their challenges.

Six Steps to Develop Radical Empathy

Wilkerson calls for radical empathy, but what does that look like in practice? Terri E. Givens, author of Radical Empathy, lays out six steps on the path to radical empathy:

• Be willing to be vulnerable.

• Become grounded in your own identity.

• Open yourself to the experiences of others.

• Practice empathy.

• Take action.

• Create change and build trust.

Givens emphasizes that these steps don’t often happen on their own—they take deliberate, consistent practice. If you belong to the dominant caste, you can practice these steps yourself the next time you interact with someone from a lower caste: Start by being vulnerable, challenge yourself to truly listen to and believe their experiences, and take concrete actions to help improve the situation.

This may not be easy—as Robin DiAngelo describes in White Fragility, white people often respond to people of color’s descriptions of racism with hostility or denial because they perceive them as a personal attack rather than an opportunity to learn and grow. If you find yourself getting uncomfortable, remember that the caste system has cost millions of people their lives—dismantling it is crucial and worth a little discomfort to achieve.