{"id":7780,"date":"2021-01-13T17:51:28","date_gmt":"2021-01-13T16:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/?p=7780"},"modified":"2023-10-16T15:39:32","modified_gmt":"2023-10-16T13:39:32","slug":"casting-gone-awry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/?p=7780","title":{"rendered":"Caste awry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Spotify Embed: The Colour Line in the Americas\" width=\"100%\" height=\"232\" allowtransparency=\"true\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"encrypted-media\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed-podcast\/episode\/4tptnGbPoc2XgRhUeGG1bK?si=M_ZuzSq8QUW3WAozC1d-VQ\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Adam Shatz talks with Hazel Carby, January 12th 2021<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left has-light-gray-background-color has-background has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">This podcast is an accompanying conversation to Hazel Carby&#8217;s <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lrb.co.uk\/the-paper\/v43\/n02\/hazel-v.-carby\/the-limits-of-caste\" target=\"_blank\">essay<\/a> in the current <em>London Review of Books<\/em> (<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lrb.co.uk\/the-paper\/v43\/n02\" target=\"_blank\">Vol. 43 No. 2 \u00b7 21 January 2021<\/a>) on Isabel Wilkerson&#8217;s <em>Caste:&nbsp;The Origins of Our Discontents<\/em>; published to acclaim last year. Carby&#8217;s argument, like all those that go against the grain, is provocative.  Interesting, is that the critique comes from a wider, global perspective of race and the historical complexities of the greater Black diaspora; and ironic, in that it is precisely with this broader brush that Wilkerson claims to make her case in her comparisons with the Indian caste system and Nazi Germany. But, Carby argues, Wilkerson is in fact bound by, and limited by, national constraints (be they inherited or learned), and constructs her &#8220;origin&#8221; story accordingly; one that depends on a (United States of) American exceptionalism. <br>Carby does make at least one very persuasive argument; in that I am persuaded to add Wilkerson&#8217;s book to my reading list! Beyond that, only a reading will tell.<br><em>(I often wonder about the considerations that lead to a book title change; why and to what end &#8211; aesthetic, linguistic, marketing.  In the LRB review above, &#8220;Caste: &#8230;&#8221; is (mistakenly?) subtitled as in the US, but in the UK it seems to actually have been published as <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.penguin.co.uk\/books\/321303\/caste\/9780241486511.html\" target=\"_blank\">Caste: The Lies that Divide Us<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><em><strong>January 17 2021<\/strong>: <\/em>As I intimated above, prior to hearing this podcast, only positive takes on Wilkerson&#8217;s book had come my way, but a newsletter that I receive regularly from <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/column\/jamelle-bouie\" target=\"_blank\">Jamelle Bouie<\/a> (which always has something interesting to read, think about &#8211; and sometimes to eat!) has just suggested <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/bostonreview.net\/race\/charisse-burden-stelly-caste-not-origin-our-discontents?campaign_id=129&amp;emc=edit_jbo_20210116&amp;instance_id=26075&amp;nl=jamelle-bouie&amp;regi_id=72770959&amp;segment_id=49482&amp;te=1&amp;user_id=db7e97dbe86545cd299989e997316ccd\" target=\"_blank\">this review by Charisse Burden-Stelly<\/a> in the <em>Boston Review<\/em>, in which, similarly to Hazel Carby, she considers &#8220;caste&#8221; to be an inadequate, even misleading, terminology under which to talk about race in the United States. Their critiques may differ in emphasis, but both reviewers dismiss this (imported) system as too rigid in structure and too dependent upon popular acceptance to lend itself to the complex interplay of politics, class and resistance in a volatile, changing social construct such as that which has evolved &#8211; continues  to evolve &#8211; in the U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This podcast is an accompanying conversation to Hazel Carby&#8217;s essay in the current London Review of Books (Vol. 43 No. 2 \u00b7 21 January 2021) on Isabel Wilkerson&#8217;s Caste:&nbsp;The Origins of Our Discontents; published to acclaim last year. Carby&#8217;s argument, like all those that go against the grain, is provocative. Interesting, is that the critique &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/?p=7780\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Caste awry&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,14,18],"tags":[251,153],"class_list":["post-7780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-podcast","category-race","tag-isabel-wilkerson","tag-london-review-of-books"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7780"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17196,"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7780\/revisions\/17196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}