Toxins in the Permafrost and Heat Rising All Around

• Caste system = unseen skeleton of America— architecture of human hierarchy, rigid & arbitrary boundaries, relies on stigmatising the "inferior" to justify oppression and rationalise enforcement
  • Race = visible agent of caste in America, the a language governed by the "grammar" of caste
  • Race aa a social construct to justify caste system
• Must account for American caste system to understand Civil War, civil rights movement, current political climate
  • African Americans ≈ Untouchables in Hindu caste system (as MLK was introduced in India)
  • Here, study India's and Nazi caste systems to better understand America's, common traits to all

The Arbitrary Construction of Human Divisions

• American slavery = first time in history one category of humanity was ruled out of the 'human race' → perpetual subjugation
  • Created an economy "whose bottom gear was torture."
  • After Civil War, Jim Crow enforced the caste system
• European immigrants only became homogeneously white when arrived in America, only in contrast to blacks (who likewise only became black once arriving from Africa)
• To consider absurdity of skin color as the basis for separation, imagine a world separated by height alone: the Dutch & Tutsis together as "talls..."
• Race is entirely a social concept.
  • Caucasian only refers to a skull found by the Caucasus Mountains
  • Lining everyone in the world up by skin color → no sort of genetic or geographic trend
  • What we "see" as race is really the social meanings and stereotypes associated with physical features
• Idea of racism is not as useful today— easy to deny, takes focus away from systems at play → casteism (which predates race) better described current hierarchies, complexities including other categories of age, gender
• Parallels between Indian and American caste systems
  • Both officially abolished but still present through debt, other systemic forces
  • African Americans ≈ Dalits, Native Americans ≈ Adivisi
  • American system = primarily two-tiered vs Indian system with thousands of subcastes, identified more by name than skin color
• Nazis (& Hitler specifically) looked to America as ideal model of racist segregation — but how did they also maintain reputation on global stage?
  • Many surprised by extent of US laws (ex. illegal interracial marriage), how racial lines were artificially drawn
  • Confused as to why Jews weren't included in lower caste

The Eight Pillars of Caste

1. Divine Will & the Laws of Nature
2. Heritability— you are born into a caste and cannot change it (unlike your class)
3. Endogamy & the Control of Marriage & Mating— enforcement of caste boundaries by forbidding marriage or even romantic interest across caste lines → created & maintained "racial" distinctions, rules controlled by dominant-caste men
4. Purity versus Pollution— physical separation bc fear of "contamination" by lower castes; seen in immigration laws & quotas, defining "black" as anyone with even a drop of non-"white" ancestry; rules extended/adapted to exclude Asians from top caste
   • "Their exclusion was used to justify their exclusion."
5. Occupational Hierarchy: The Jatis & the Mudsill— division of labor based on caste hierarchy → enforced by making it impossible for lower castes to own land, businesses; confined to roles of entertainment
6. Dehumanisation & Stigma— at group level, bc very difficult to dehumanize an individual you know: forced labor, starvation, medical experimentation
7. Terror as Enforcement, Cruelty as a Means of Control
8. Inherent Superiority versus Inherent Inferiority— had to be demonstrated in every situation, even order of boarding a bus

The Tentacles of Caste

• Dominant group status threat → lower-achieving dominant caste (ex. working class whites) panic & suffer as lowest caste (blacks) began to make progress, as their privileges & advantages fade
  • Disillusionment = psychologically really distressing; their skin color = critical to their sense of identity and safety
  • Left unprepared (economically insecure, undereducated) for an "equal playing field"
  • Not aware of the many govt programs closed to African Americans until recently (SSA, fair labor and housing laws)
• Unconscious bias
• Lack of health care, etc. → opioid epidemic is now hard to control among "dominant caste;" learned nothing from cocaine epidemic bc considered a black issue, not a human one
• Last place anxiety → friction between groups in lowest class to avoid being treated worst; explains how marginalized people who manage to rise authority may reject/diminish their own → only way to survive in the hierarchy
• Causes society to forego advancement, progress, etc. to maintain caste boundaries (ex. amazing pitcher not allowed in MLB until older)

The Consequences of Caste

• Exposure to social inequality, difficult life conditions, discrimination → accelerated aging of telomeres, higher rates of CV disease (in African Americans, poor whites)
  • Esp for marginalized people at upper boundary of their caste (middle class blacks) → out-of-place principle of social dominance

Backlash

• Caste system's response to Obama's election? Huge departure from script
• Took an ideal, picturesque family (origin story removed from reminders of slavery), Great Recession making it easier for dominant caste to "take a risk"
  • Still, majority of white voters did not vote for him; did not support him throughout presidency
• Increase in restrictive voting lows in response to increased minority turnout; surge in hate groups
• Hyper-vigilance to "racialized economics"— belief that undeserving groups are getting ahead while your group is left behind
• Why are so many lower class white "voting against their interests?" They're not— maintaining caste system is their ultimate long-term interest.
  • People align themselves with part of their identity that affords them most status (white women voting for whites over women)
• Jonathan Chair: hierarchy arising from slavery → America's indifference toward helping all of its citizens— unique among developed nations

Awakening

• Caste is a disease, no one is immune
• How to dismantle the system?
  • Look to Germany— understand it's not an aberration or result of a dictator, but part of human nature
  • Radical empathy— truly educate yourself on what another's experience is from their perspective, connect to each other's humanity