Isabel Wilkerson's "Origin" Movie and "Caste" Book
Has Wilkerson created a grand, unified systemic oppression theory and does her theory suggest a new approach to addressing the global north-south caste system?
Whether you consider yourself a Social Justice Warrior or more readily identify as anti-woke, I want to say this film and this book are for you. If, like me, you've had a problematic mix of love and hate reactions to both schools of thought at different times, I want to say they are especially for you.
The easy racism-shaming of the woke movement and the racism-denial of the anti-woke crowd are both easily criticized because they both are imprecise in their formulation of what's wrong with our society.
The film "Origin" is a fascinating analysis (and dramatization of the life of the author of the book, @Isabelwilkerson) that compares the common elements of the caste system in India, slavery & Jim Crow in the U.S. and the Jewish Holocaust in the Third Reich in Germany. The author argues that the root problem in all cases is the separation of societies into allegedly "superior" groups and allegedly "inferior" groups and the enactment of legal frameworks that perpetuate the separation and the conferring of privileges on "superior" groups that are denied to "inferior" groups.
Bottom line? We, in America, don't have a racism problem nearly as much as we, in the whole world, have a caste problem. We are all complex and unique individuals with special gifts and limitations, not flat 2-D caricatures from central-casteing (please groan now) and either we are all one or we are eight billion, but we are not mere cookie-cutter humans identified by labels of race, gender, ethnicity, national origin, class, caste, body type etc.
Wilkerson has, I believe, succeeded in creating a grand, unified privilege/marginalization theory that supports a nuanced understanding of a wide range of models of systemic oppression and, in formulating this nuanced theory, has provided us with a potential rallying point that, I hope, can help unite our sorely divided society.
Wilkerson's theory can take us far beyond ideas about creating equality or equity within individual nations. It could, potentially, help us to realize that global north and global south represent a global caste system that is beyond the scope of any individual country's legislation. And, perhaps, this theory can help us address the problem of a global caste system with a global tool set.
As a #Kennedy24 supporter, I am accustomed to working through thesis v. antithesis debates to arrive at a synthesis (to use the Hegelian terms) that enables us to #HealTheDivide. I expect many of my fellows in the K24 campaign will both appreciate Wilkerson's accomplishment and the opportunity it represents.
The book behind the film: "Caste": https://a.co/d/erEKf4Z
Origin (2023) - IMDb entry: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13321244/
"We, in America, don't have a racism problem nearly as much as we, in the whole world, have a caste problem." There is definitely a correlation. It makes a lot of sense.
In many ways, if we addressed the class system with equality in the design of the system itself, racism should shift to being a lot more marginalized. Recognizing that there are shifts as nothing sits on an on/off toggle switch. As such ... absolutely remove the caste/class structure and let that shift happen. We would all be in considerably more vibrant community as a result.