The Roots of Racism in America
Isabel Wilkerson released Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents in August of 2020. It was an almost instant success, rising to the top of various best-seller lists and winning awards. Ophrah Winfrey selected it for her book club, and Barack Obama noted that it was one of his favorite books of the year. I read it about a year after it came out and was both impressed and horrified by it.
Today’s Virginia Gazette article is about the newly released Ava DuVernay film Origin, based loosely on Wilkerson’s book. The title of the film is drawn from the subtitle of Wilkerson’s book, and it focuses on the story that unfolds in the book – the author’s journey as she researched the book and navigated her own personal joys and tragedies to tell a bigger story. The Gazette story says “The film takes a heavyweight work of historical and sociological inquiry and transforms it into a deeply humanistic drama and a globe-trotting detective story.”
Wilkerson and DuVernay are both African-American women, and the story they tell gives readers and viewers of all colors and nationalities some insight into issues of race, class, and caste as these two remarkable women have experienced, seen, and researched them. This is particularly important today, as large swaths of the American public embrace the idea that “the United States has never been a racist country,” while other people define efforts to deal with the problem – like critical race theory, affirmative action, and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts – as the “real” problem.
The context of the book and movie are inescapably obvious to anyone who has been paying attention. The book was released just before the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and the opening scene of the movie is a dramatic re-creation of the 2012 shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Miami. The movie then bounces off elements in the book, dipping into historical vignettes including Nazi Germany, Jim Crow Mississippi, and the experience of the Dalits (untouchables) in India.
There is one part of the book that I have been unable to forget since I first read it. Wilkerson explained how Nazi Germany specifically modeled its efforts to disenfranchise and discriminate against Jewish citizens on the racist policies of the United States in the early 20th century. The difference, as Wilkerson explained it, was that Jim Crow didn’t go far enough. The Nazi regime was even more interested in how the United States had designated Native Americans, Filipinos, and Chinese residents as non-citizens; these models influenced the citizenship portion of the Nuremberg Laws that stripped Jewish Germans of their citizenship and classified them as nationals.
Origin is currently showing at the AMC Hampton Towne Centre about 30 minutes from where I live. It’s not showing yet in Williamsburg, but I think I’ll probably drive to Hampton to see it soon. It sounds like it’s worth the trip.