Caste: Chapter 14 Summary & Analysis

Wilkerson shares an anecdote about a father and his young son who were dining at a restaurant in Oakland after the death of Tamir Rice. Rice was a 12-year-old boy who was shot and killed by Cleveland police officers for playing with a toy gun—in spite of the fact that Ohio is an open carry state, and many young boys play with toy guns. As the father fretted over how to prepare his young son for the realities of growing up in the U.S.’s caste system, the son began crying about wanting to drink some juice before eating his vegetables. A white woman sitting at a nearby table came over and told the young boy—ignoring his father’s presence entirely—that he could drink his juice first.

Caste can affect even the most ordinary daily interactions. Wilkerson shares several more anecdotes to illustrate how caste interferes with everyday life. She shares an anecdote about a Black woman who went to a neighbor’s house to introduce herself, only to be mistaken for a dry cleaner and handed a bag of dirty clothes. A Black college professor opening his mail in the elevator with his neighbor was mistaken for a mailman and accused of mail fraud. A white engineer dealt with repetitious calls from a white contractor who refused to communicate with a Black engineer at the firm.

Black citizens in the U.S. are disproportionately surveilled and are all too often accused of being intruders in spaces that some feel “belong” to members of the dominant caste. For instance, when a Yale student called the campus police on a Black student napping in the library, the Black student had to prove to them that she attended the school. A Black babysitter driving two white children he cared for around town was tailed by a white woman who called the authorities, accusing him of kidnapping them.

Wilkerson shares a personal anecdote: after rushing through an airport on her way to an interview following a delayed arrival in Detroit, she was accosted by two white people who told her they were with the DEA and demanded to know what her business in the city was. They demanded to follow her on the shuttle to the airport’s rental car agency, even after she told them she was a journalist on assignment. It was only when she pulled out her notebook and began taking detailed notes about them that they apologized for their mistake and left her alone. Instances like this illustrate “the thievery of caste,” and how caste continues to steal time, energy, and emotional bandwidth from members of the subordinate caste.