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
Endogamy, or restricting marriage to people within the same caste, is a measure that’s been taken in every major caste system the world has seen: India, the U.S., and Nazi Germany. Under the edicts of endogamy, intermarriage between castes is prohibited—but so too is any sexual congress or even the expression of romantic interest. On a practical level, this reduces empathy or any sense of commonality between the castes, and it reinforces the idea that the subordinate caste is a threat or menace to the dominant one.
This passage illustrates how the dominant caste engineers the caste system to suit their needs and prolong their ability to oppress the subordinate caste. Marriage laws may be presented as a way to preserve the purity of a bloodline, but in reality, they keep members of the dominant caste from developing attachments to—and thus recognizing the humanity of—members of the subordinate caste.
Themes
In 1630, a colonist named Hugh Davis was publicly whipped after “lying with a Negro” (having sex with a Black woman). His public humiliation wasn’t just a warning to members of the dominant caste, but to those of the subordinate one as well. The lower caste could be exploited—white men had (often nonconsensual) sexual relations with African women throughout U.S. colonial history. But despite their affiliation with upper-caste men, lower-caste women could not approach anything close to equality. Legal prohibitions of intermarriage—first signed into law in 1691 in Virginia—were not officially overturned until 1967. In Alabama, the law was not repealed until 2000.
This passage shows how important endogamy is to the survival of a caste system. As far back as the 1600s, members of the dominant caste knew that in order to maintain the illusion of their supremacy, they would need to frame relations with the subordinate caste as intolerable—even though they happened frequently. These societal messages became so embedded in the American colonies that these laws remained part of U.S. society into the 21st century.
Themes
Through endogamy laws, the state could create and enforce race. Dominant-caste men could essentially have their way with lower-caste women without facing consequences for much of American history. But any lower-caste men who were even suspected of making advances toward upper-caste women were made to pay dearly, often with their lives. In December of 1943, a 15-year-old subordinate-caste boy, Willie James Howard, signed a Christmas card to his coworker at a local dime store—a dominant-caste girl—“with L,” meaning “love.” The girl’s father and two other white men captured Willie James, dragged him to a nearby river, hog-tied him, and forced him to jump in and drown while his father watched. The boy’s murderers were never charged or indicted.
This passage illustrates the double standards created by caste. Upper-caste men were allowed to assault and rape lower-caste women in order to demonstrate their power over them. But even a sweet Christmas card from a subordinate-caste member to a dominant-caste member was seen as a threat to the caste’s system’s power structure—and Willie James Howard was punished with his life. Howard’s murderers faced no consequences for taking his life, because they were doing what caste instructed them to: violently asserting their power over the subordinate caste.
Themes
