Pam McSt on Spoutible

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I wrote up some of my general thoughts on Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. I will go through the discussion questions posted today and answer some of the those as well.

TLDR: Everyone should read this book. We need more public awareness of caste.

#SBBC #SpoutibleBannedBookClub #caste

This was my first time reading Caste, but I have a degree in anthropology so I was familiar many of the references to scholars being aware of caste in America and using the term for decades. I have tried to explain to people before that race is a social construct and how races are defined changes through time and with location. I have also said that there is more biological variation within so-called races than there are between them. I learned this over 25 years ago studying cultural anthropology, archaeology, biological/physical anthropology, and osteology, I have often preferred to use the term ethnicity--though I do use the word race when it's relevant. It seems to me that race is an assigned categorization and it's definition is changeable. Ethnicity is a broader term and seems more self-determined to me, because people are identifying themselves through their heritage and cultural traditions. (e.g. shared history, language, physical appearance, religion, cuisine, dress, etc.). Ca...

01:41 PM - May 22, 2023

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I just came across this April Facebook post from Isabel Wilkerson about the Tennessee Three and caste.

Isabel Wilkerson:
We are witnessing caste play out in our day in real time to the detriment of democracy itself. Two black lawmakers were stunningly expelled from their duly elected seats for leading a protest for gun reform after a school shooting that took the lives of three children and three adults in Nashville just the week before.
The white woman lawmaker who participated in the protest was spared expulsion (by a single vote).
The Tennessee House of Representatives expelled the two legislators — Rep. Justin Jones and Rep. Justin Pearson — over “rules violations” for leading a protest without being formally recognized. The Republicans who voted against them said they “did knowingly and intentionally bring disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives.”
During the seven-hour debate before their expulsion, both men spoke in the soaring oratory of civil rights leaders of earlier generations. “We called for you all to ban assault weapons,” Rep. Jones told his fellow lawmakers,...

02:55 PM - May 22, 2023

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