America’s Hidden Caste System

On Wednesday, February 24, EDS at Union hosted a virtual panel discussion that focuses on Isabel Wilkerson’s New York Times-bestseller Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Our panelists will discuss the history and themes explored by the book, and what Ms. Wilkerson describes as America’s hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings that goes beyond race, class, or other factors.
Joining Dean Kelly Brown Douglas on the panel will be Dr. Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of African-American Studies and Sociology and director of the African American Studies Program at Colby College, and The Rev. Dr. Joshua Samuel, Visiting Lecturer for Theology, Global Christianity, and Mission at Union Theological Seminary and the author of Untouchable Bodies, Resistance, and Liberation on a theology of liberation among Hindu and Christian Dalits.

The conversation was moderated by Hope Wabuke, a poet, writer and assistant professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Wabuke was asked by NPR Books to review Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.