I've been reticent to write this one not because I'm cowed by the subject matter and my own lack of life experience in it (read: my middle-aged white-guy-ness), but because my own words are insufficient to extol the virtue of anything Wilkerson so powerfully (she is a staggeringly brilliant writer – between this and THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS, her voice is a gift to reading and undestanding) says; indeed, my bracketing system got a workout (!, especially) as Wilkerson tore off the blinders of a centuries-old systemic design to reveal the depths of this country's ongoing crimes against humanity.

Side note: intrigued to see what Ava DuVernay does with her film adaptation, especially since CASTE doesn't seem to be the most filmic of Wilkerson's two works (WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS – equally essential – takes that honor).

Anyhow: read it / absorb it / internalize it / do better; my complete reading list, from 2013 to the present, lives here.