Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Caste, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Caste, Race, and Social Division in the U.S.
Caste as a Global Problem
How Caste Sustains Itself
The Costs of Caste
Summary
Analysis
Wilkerson crafts a fanciful tale about a civilization in a universe parallel to this one. On that planet, short people are the dominant caste, and tall people are the subordinate caste. “Shorts” around the world unite against “Talls,” enslaving them and torturing them. Wilkerson points out the ridiculousness of such an organization of hierarchy in order to show that race is just as absurd a system of categorization as height. But no matter how ridiculous the metric of differentiation between subordinate and dominant castes, those in the middle play up whichever traits are in power in order to inch closer to supremacy. To the world of Talls and Shorts, Wilkerson argues, a caste system based on skin color would seem just as ludicrous.
By using the example of “Talls” and “Shorts”, Wilkerson is able to lampoon how ridiculous caste is and also provide a cautionary tale about how difficult it is to escape a caste system. Essentially, those with power don’t want to relinquish their power—no matter how arbitrary the quality that gave them that power is.
Themes
Race is a “recent phenomenon,” and it’s an entirely socially constructed concept. Race has no basis in science or biology—though white supremacists and eugenicists have certainly tried to justify the “arbitrary” elevation of whiteness by suggesting that there are biological differences between people of different races. Race was created to defend the privileges of the dominant caste. Today, when people “see” race, what they’re really seeing are the learned social stereotypes that the dominant caste has created in order to protect itself.
By calling attention to how new, strange, and random racial categories are, Wilkerson is likening the metaphor of “Talls” and “Shorts” to global society. Race and racial stereotypes only exist because of the dominant caste, who secured their power by inventing reasons for their own supremacy. This shows that race and caste were carefully created—and that they can be dismantled.
Themes
Contemporary racism has evolved significantly over the last several decades, and now, the idea of being labeled a racist is “radioactive” to most members of the dominant caste. But racism is not, as many people think, overt hatred of another group based on race. Rather, racism is a continuum—the “polluted […] air of social instruction” that every American receives from childhood onward is rooted in caste.
By metaphorizing racism as a kind of polluted air that everyone breathes, Wilkerson suggests that no one is immune to racism’s toxic effects. When something is so widespread and ever-present, people can’t avoid it even though they might try to.
Themes
Caste is a “living, breathing entity” that enforces structures, rankings, and boundaries on the basis of someone’s perceived rank. Though casteism and racism are intertwined in the U.S., they can be differentiated. Racism, Wilkerson suggests, is an action that mocks, or harms, or attaches stereotype based on the construct of race. Casteism is any action that seeks to limit, hold back, or rank someone. All actions in such a society, Wilkerson argues, are based on elevating one’s rank by denigrating someone else’s. So, in the U.S., racism and casteism often overlap. One can be casteist without being explicitly racist, but all racists are seeking to uphold casteism.
In this passage, Wilkerson explains the complex relationship between racism and casteism. She implies that because U.S. society is so polarized and so structured around dominance, power, and wealth, casteism affects all aspects of life in the U.S. And because the caste system in the U.S. is based on race, acts that uphold caste inevitably uphold racism as well. Someone might not actively believe that Black people are inferior to white people—but that doesn’t mean they don’t participate in a structure that was built entirely around that racist belief.
Themes
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People at every level of U.S. society have internalized the caste system in which they live, and what matters is whether one tries to uphold it or dismantle it. Caste is a factor in so many social interactions that one might not even perceive their own casteism. Post-racialism is still a faraway dream precisely because of caste’s invisibility—and in order to end this cycle, caste needs to be a factor in any plan to address the country’s present trials.
While many people in the U.S. might like to think they’re living in a post-racial society—one in which racial categories and discrimination no longer affect people—the reality is that caste is so entwined in American life that many people can’t even see it. The book suggests that Americans need to learn to see how caste tries to hide itself, then draw it out into the open and reject its influence.
Themes
