Michael Brislen

Wilkinson gets it right about caste in America. The only real weakness of the book is when she begins to talk about caste in India. It is there that she does not really understand what is going on. Caste is still important in India, unlike what some biased high-caste Indian reviewers might say. However, it was not always a fixed system based on religion, nor social class as Wilkinson and many believe. She is a journalist and the book demonstrates that style. I am more of an academic. Wilkinson does a great job at researching her topic. She utilizes some older, less well-known research into the American racial system by previous sociologists, who also used the concept of caste to depict the American racial system. She does excellent work at showing the unfortunate caste nature of the American racial system through both historical and sociological research and through personal story. The book is written extremely well. It is hard to put down. I hope that college freshmen and capable high school seniors are reading this book all over our nation. The negative reviews demonstrate the need to overcome the racism and white supremacist attitudes in this country.