Three-quarters of the way into Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Isabel Wilkerson describes the humiliation suffered by Black passengers on a steamship in the American South before the Civil War.

Caste is an ancient system of social hierarchy based on one's birth that is tied to concepts of purity and social status. Its history, evolution and current state are complicated. A move to outlaw ...

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson says racism is an insufficient term for the systemic oppression of Black people in America. Instead, she prefers to refer to America as having a "caste" ...

Vikki Velasquez is a researcher and writer who has managed, coordinated, and directed various community and nonprofit organizations. She has conducted in-depth research on social and economic issues ...

Maya thought she left caste-based discrimination behind when she came to the U.S. from India to pursue her studies, but she was shocked to discover she was wrong. Maya is Dalit, the most oppressed ...

Subramanian Shankar does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations ...

To read Isabel Wilkerson is to revel in the pleasure of reading — to relax into the virtuosic performance of thought and form one is about to encounter, safe and secure that the structures will not ...

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated. Caste is an ancient system of social ...