Chapter 14: The Intrusion of Caste in Everyday Life

One of the most insidious aspects of caste is the way its tentacles reach into the regular, daily lives of African Americans. Wilkerson mentions the need for Black parents to have a serious conversation with their children at some point about issues of race, bias, and policing in the United States, in light of so many recent killings of Black boys and young men by the authorities. Subordinate-caste people continue to suffer disruptions in their work and social lives that have legal and financial consequences not as easily remedied as they might be for someone with Wilkerson’s status, who herself is profiled by federal agents at the airport.

Chapter 15: The Urgent Necessity of a Bottom Rung

One of the foundations of American caste order is the need for the subordinate caste to remain so by being denied access to mainstream affluence. For much of American history, poor performance was expected, excellence was feared, and extreme measures were maintained to ensure that African Americans were not allowed to compete with whites on an equal playing field. African American soldiers who distinguished themselves and earned honors while fighting with the French in World War I were denied that regard by their own military. The American command went so far as to instruct the French officers not to treat their Black comrades as equals, a trend that continued throughout African American wartime service in the twentieth century. Wilkerson also cites examples of America's bloodiest race riots, both of which began with armed white citizens laying siege to Black commercial districts and other symbols of Black prosperity.

Chapter 16: Last Place Anxiety: Packed in a Flooded Basement

One important phenomenon related to intra-group struggle within the subordinate caste is the preoccupation of its members with avoiding the very bottom rung, increasing social divisions through the tendency to marginalize its own members. With so few available avenues for recognition by the dominant-caste gatekeepers, some members of the subordinate caste may find advantage in keeping others down and away from similar opportunities. This pattern is described as “crabs in a barrel” and can take destructive and violent forms. A related aspect of this phenomenon is the tendency for immigrants and non-American people of color to distance themselves from members of the American subordinate caste, avoiding displays of solidarity lest they themselves be marginalized in the eyes of the dominant-caste gatekeepers. 

Chapter 17: On the Early Front Lines of Caste

Wilkerson recounts the story of the husband and wife team of Black, Harvard-trained anthropologists the Davises, who worked with a white anthropologist couple for a secret two-year undercover study of the inner workings of race and caste in Depression-era Natchez, Mississippi. The Davises were embedded within the subordinate community, roles which they had to learn to play accordingly, while their white colleagues integrated into the local dominant society by posing as government aid workers. By the time the Davises were able to publish their exhaustive findings, there had already been a recent flurry of related research into American social relations, funded during the New Deal era. While the Davises had actually been the first to explore the idea, their monumental study was not given its full accounting at the time, though it remains a seminal work.

Chapter 18: Satchel Paige and the Illogic of Caste

Leroy “Satchel” Paige is considered one of the best pitchers to ever play baseball, but though his prowess is legendary, he was denied entry to the major leagues until his forties, two years after Jackie Robinson became the first Black player to...