Caste, The Origins of Our Discontents, by Isabel Wilkerson, is one of those books that caused my perception to shift, my world view to change focus. This is an extremely well researched, well thought out book (I counted 171 authors in the bibliography) full of history and facts.
Wilkerson’s own personal experiences of being black, being unseen, bring it into focus. She compares slavery and racism in our country to the caste system of India and holocaust of Nazi Germany.
Our larger book group discussed this timely book the day after the mob attack on the US capitol. The insights we gained from it helped us understand why people did this, why so many are attracted to Trump, and that unanswerable question for many of us, why do people vote and behave against their own interests. Wilkerson’s plausible answer is that they are willing to give up things that would help them in the short term to protect their long-term interests. What are those long-term interests? To keep the prestige, power, and supremacy they feel is their due simply because they are white. People will vote and act against anything that might help the brown or black person rise above the lowest rungs of society and threaten white position. It is especially threatening for the white people who feel unsuccessful to see nonwhites getting things they are unable to get for themselves.
I was so pleased to see a book about Hawai’i listed in the Best Summer Travel Reads in the NYT Book Review. Portland author Liz Prato, in Volcanoes, Palm Trees, and Privilege has written a very engaging collection of essays about the language, local customs, tourist attractions, television shows and movies – and places I have been to.
But it is not all fluff. I expected this to be a welcome contrast to Wilkerson’s book, but the depressing mistreatment of and attitude towards the brown caste by the dominant white caste (her word is colonizers) suffuses the essays. In her discussion of the Brady Bunch in Hawai’i she points out that teen Greg Brady may ogle the many “bikinis” on the beach but when he speaks to one, she isn’t a local girl, but a blond Californian.
I liked Prato’s information and sharp observations but thought her language a little too breezy. I suppose that I am showing my age, but I like some decorum in a book and fewer f-words. She talks about the islands, including Kaua’i the Garden Isle, as a refuge, a place of healing. This is the perfect segue to the next book I want to talk about.
To brighten this gloomy weather, our small group decided to read Penelope Lively’s nonfiction work, Life in the Garden. A book about both literature and gardening, what could be better? I give it mixed reviews.
As always with Lively, I love her musings on time, the past, and memory. The discussions of the “uses” of a garden, as refuge or creative expression, were interesting. But those chapters that were essentially lists of flowers species, gardens, gardeners, gardening books? I found them boring and skimmed through. No, it was the philosophical sections I enjoyed.
She says, “I have the universal old age failing with names…but in fact (plant) names seem to surface more readily than those of politicians or celebrities, which is as it should be, as far as I’m concerned.”
I like her attitude about removing plants that no longer serve the purpose she wants. That section combined with the section on husband-and-wife gardeners reminded me of my own situation when I want to remove something. I see it as overgrown, out of proportion, three times bigger than its intended size and my husband says – but it is doing so well!
And finally, after talking about the expulsion from that first garden so central to our mythology, she wonders if there is something primeval about people’s affinity for gardens, “Here we are, …in possession again….” Yes, I like Lively’s attitude.
I’ve subscribed to Merriam Webster’s “Word of the Day” online for years. (It’s free.) It’s fun to see how many words I already know the definition of, but also fun to see how many I know only partially when the meaning is not quite what I thought.
In addition to the definition, the daily page has other word facts and games which I don’t usually take the time for, but this one intrigued me, “You Need a Hobby: 7 Words for Those Who Pursue Their Passions.” I liked cruciverbalist, a person skillful in creating or solving crossword puzzles. And then there is phillumenist, one who collects matchbooks, or matchbook labels. Really? People do that? Probably, not so much since smoking has declined. The idea of hobbies though resonated with me in our time of still-being-quarantined.
Addendum
I meant to end on the relatively upbeat note of hobbies during quarantine, but have found myself, the last few days, looking up the exact meaning of words like sedition and what was the Reichstag and what does it mean today. These are not words or concepts I ever expected to need to know in connection with my own country. My reading time has been devoted to newspapers. First, there was the reporting of the incredible attack on the capitol and now, the thoughtful analyses, opinion pieces, and editorials that being written. One from the NYT especially struck home, “…the mob tested more than policy or ideology. The intentions of the president’s supporters struck at an idea at the core of the American experiment – that, in time, the country’s commitment to democracy will overtake its history of intolerance.” In Caste, Wilkerson wonders about the same thing. If people have to choose between whiteness (supremacy) and democracy, which will they choose?
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You discuss such a variety of subjects. I need to go and read the entire essay again.First impression : However do you read so many books and then are able to critique them all so invitingly.
I’m still in the phase of not being able to focus easily, so having a nice bouquet of books to think about through your most recent entry was a nice way to start my day. I thought you especially captured what Wilkerson was writing about in Caste when you made reference to the tv series and the girls on the beach–and who the character noticed in their bikinis! Caste was a great way to see life from the standpoint of another person of another color!
I looked up sediton as well, and treason–which, I learned, is not at all the same. And I got out my pocket edition of he Constitution and learned about the 25th Amendment. I hope all this goes away, but I’m afraid it will take awhile.
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I haven’t read Caste yet, but it is on the top of the pile. I know I will learn more about racism and the history of prejudice, bigotry and hate. But I am convinced that the real improvements in society here will be because middle class, well meaning whites are finally learning at the gut level the daily horror that people of color live with–always being careful, never quite knowing when unpleasantness or even violence will have to be confronted and escaped. And this from childhood on. Surely the white community can do better than this. Surely we HAVE To do better from this day forward.