Lightly edited copy of a blast email Debi and I sent out last week to members of our congregation, Peace Lutheran Church of Springfield, promoting the second meeting an adult faith formation discussion of the book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson. We call the group Sundays@6, and it meets over Zoom Sunday evenings at 6 p.m. I archive these emails here so I can find them later if I need them. Link HERE for an explanation of why I use the blog as an electronic filing cabinet.
Hi everybody —
Kudos to all who took part in Sunday’s session — the discussion was lively, focused and instructive. We’re off to a great start! A discussion handout is attached for our next session, Sunday, Oct. 1, at 6 p.m. (we’ll be online from 5:45 p.m. to chat and work out technical glitches). We’ll be going over Section 2 of Isabel Wilkerson’s “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.”
As always, we’ll meet over Zoom. A link will be available Friday in Peace Lutheran’s online newsletter, News You Can Use. You can also join the session by using this link, meeting ID and passcode:
- [redacted]
Also: If for some reason you can’t get this link or the one in the newsletter to work, you can reach Pete and Debi at xxx-xxx-xxxx.
***
In Section 2, Wilkerson gives a historical perspective on the development of caste systems — which she defines as society-wide systems of social stratification characterized by notions such as hierarchy, inclusion and exclusion, and purity — in the US, India and Nazi Germany. She says:
The social pyramid known as a caste system is not identical to the cast in a play, though the similarity in the two words hints at a tantalizing intersection. […] We are performing based on our place in the production, not necessarily on who we are inside. We are all players on a stage that was built long before our ancestors arrived in this land. We are the latest cast in a long-running drama that premiered on this soil in the early seventeenth century. (p. 40)
What’s insidious about this is that the drama is baked into our culture, and has been since 1619. “Stay in the roles long enough,” says Wilkerson, “and everyone begins to believe that the roles are preordained, that each cast member is best suited by talent and temperament for their assigned role, and maybe for only that role, that they belong there and were meant to be cast as they are currently seen” (pp. 39-40).
We might be tempted to think of caste as something long ago and/or far away, but just yesterday (Wednesday), a joint project of Chicago’s Investigative Project on Race and Equity, WBEZ public radio and the Sun-Times reported:
- In Chicago, where Black, white and Latino populations are roughly equal, traffic stops of Black drivers in 2022 were more than four times that of whites and more than twice that of Latinos.
- Beyond Chicago’s city limits, traffic stops also disproportionately affect Black drivers. Last year traffic stops involving Black drivers made up 21% of all traffic stops throughout Illinois (excluding Chicago).
“Statewide, the 2020 Census showed that 13.56 percent of Illinois’ population was Black,” said Rich Miller, editor-publisher of the Capitol Fax newsletter on state politics and government. “That population percentage is significantly lower outside Chicago, so 21 percent of all traffic stops in the suburbs and Downstate is way more than the Black population percentage. In other words, don’t pat yourself on the back too hard if you live outside the city.”
Nor should we pat ourselves on the back in Springfield.
“In Springfield 49.34% of stops were of Black people & 47.12% of stops were white people,” a commenter pointed out on Capitol Fax. “According to PopulationU.com the percentage of whites in Springfield is 72.5 & the percentage of Blacks is 21.4.”
What do these statistics tell us about the relative place in the hierarchy or society-wide system of social stratification in Illinois? How do the stats square with Wilkerson’s description of a caste system?
Here’s a link toCapitol Fax — https://capitolfax.com/2023/09/27/todays-must-read-58/#comments — and CapFax links in turn to the Investigative Project/WBEZ study.
We’re looking forward to seeing everyone Sunday at 6!
— Debi and Pete
[Published Oct. 6, 2023]
Ordinary Time 