Castas — The Origins of Our Discontent

Isabel Wilkerson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, redefines our understanding of the social structures in which we live, preferring the term casteism to the more common racism.

In this work, the author links what she considers the three main caste systems—those of the United States, India, and Nazi Germany—to their respective cultural, political, and legal influences, tracing the research back to the slave trade and even to the Portuguese diaspora, which, upon arrival in India, resulted in the emergence of the Portuguese word casta, meaning race or lineage.

With an impressive list of references to news, studies, documents, statements, administrative and judicial decisions from various countries and eras, Wilkerson establishes a disturbing link between global caste systems through eight strictly defined pillars.

The colonization of the United States by European peoples and its consequences for caste protocols and contemporary political contours worldwide is examined by the author in an intense and disturbing parade of individual stories of slavery and insensitivity, presented with vivid and stunning detail.

No one, wherever they live or whatever color their skin may be, can afford to ignore a story of the world told in this way.