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Jessaka's Reviews > Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
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It was the 70s. The young woman sat in my history class listening to the professor talk about slavery. Then she said, “They loved being slaves. That is why they were always singing and dancing. We all laughed, but we should have gasped. Our laugh was how we corrected her. There should have been something said and maybe there was, and I have just forgotten. This book has that correction. They sang and they danced because they were forced to do so, and tears would slide down their faces like rain as they watched their loved ones being sold into slavery. Never to see them again. Their enslavers wanted them to look like they were happy to besold into slavery, and the South perpetuated this myth ever since. And the dance and the singing went on and on throughout history.
This book was just too horrifying for me. I thought of how the Jews were treated in Germany and elsewhere, even the Native Americans. People don’t realize, some won’t believe it, that America had its own Nazi Germany, its own Auschwitz, so to speak. And when historians said that Hitler learned from us, he did, more so than we would like to think. When I finished this chapter, I had to put the book down.
I recall how some people who had read The People’s History of the U.S. believed that it was all lies, and that it only taught Americans to hate their country. This book goes deeper, much deeper. You will question the humanity of mankind.
This book was just too horrifying for me. I thought of how the Jews were treated in Germany and elsewhere, even the Native Americans. People don’t realize, some won’t believe it, that America had its own Nazi Germany, its own Auschwitz, so to speak. And when historians said that Hitler learned from us, he did, more so than we would like to think. When I finished this chapter, I had to put the book down.
I recall how some people who had read The People’s History of the U.S. believed that it was all lies, and that it only taught Americans to hate their country. This book goes deeper, much deeper. You will question the humanity of mankind.
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Reading Progress
December 30, 2020
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Started Reading
December 30, 2020
– Shelved
December 30, 2020
– Shelved as:
non-fiction
December 30, 2020
– Shelved as:
sociology
December 30, 2020
– Shelved as:
politics
December 30, 2020
– Shelved as:
pyschology
December 30, 2020
– Shelved as:
history
December 30, 2020
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Finished Reading
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Dmitri
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Dec 30, 2020 12:55PM
Terrifying. Great review.
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Dictator Donnie boy is a horrible thought.
More great insights from an insightful reader! Love your reviews!
loved this book too, Jessaka. There is so much here to think about. Great review.
Thanks to all 3 of you for your wonderful comments
27 years ago I took a recent Russian Jewish immigrant to a little known spot in my hometown, Marblehead. It was just a quiet little dell at the bottom of a hill where the houses of the colonial upper class stood (and still stand). Trees, some bushes and grass, and a few birds chirping. I told her, "This is where, in colonial times, the slaves were buried. No markers, no nothing. They just threw them in here and covered them up." She said to me, "Everybody has their holocaust." She became my friend for life. Singing and dancing! Give me a f.......break!
Tulsa Is busy trying to find the bodies of the black super murdered in 1920 during 1 of the biggest race massacres in our history at least They are looking
Excellent review, Jessaka! This book is so powerful and yes, it did make me question the humanity of mankind and how we turn history to suit our purposes. How can we correct if we don't know and admit our own history? Even knowing is not enough. Even now as we see the truth beaten to smithereens every day, one wonders if lies will be written in the history books.
thank you Libby for your, excellent comments
I love reading Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ reviews and have never commented. But, wow. What a great review. Thank you. My heart is hurting reading this book.
Thank you for your great comment my heart hurts too when I read these kinds of books or listen to the daily news. It just never seems to end
Our Diversity in All Forms Book Club is reading this for June. We’d love to have you join the discussion on it. :) /topic/show/...
Absolutely must disagree with her assertion that the enslaved were forced to sing and dance. Call and Response singing was brought with them from Africa. It was (and is) done to add a steady rhythm to whatever work is being done, thus making it easier to maintain your work over a period of time. They would have sung everywhere work was being done.
Dance was (and is) also a very important part of African culture. They would have brought their dances with them. Later (not that much later), dances was done to mock the elite (not in the elite's view, of course! It would have been done in the quarters, away from the prying eyes of the owners).
Music (song and dance) was a way to protest. Google the song 'Juba' to see what I mean.
Loved your very informative comments. Perhaps Somewhere force to sing in dance. I see that you have read a lot of books on racism just as I have. Are you able to remember what book you got your information from because I believe I would love to read it.
I'm a Museum Educator/Living Historian specialising in slavery history, so I've done a LOT of research on slavery, particularly 18th Century slavery in the South Carolina Lowcountry (Charleston was a major port). Unfortunately, I don't remember where I read that information. I'd be happy to provide you with a beginning list of books that have proven most informative.
Thanks for your friendship. And, yes I would love a list of those books thank you
Singing and dancing... reminds me of a (I think Christmas) feast scene in Marlon James' "Book Of Night Women", where singing and dancing was done, and the masters watched. :P
I think I have that book Jane
Jessaka wrote: "I think I have that book Jane"I still sometimes think about that book.
I could almost hear the music... though what it really sounded like was likely different. *hm*
Generally I agree, except on the Auschwitz part. Lynching and gas chambers are both absolutely horrific, but they are not the same and do not serve the same purpose. Not claiming that one is worse than the other (I suppose one could), just saying they are different.
Molly, I think your observation has merit, but I want to tell you how the treatment of the Blacks and the Jews are much the same, and I might add, the genocide of the Native People’s is as well, but that is another story:The difference that I see is that we have no dictator like Hitler who can round up the Blacks and other people of color, so the genocide has been done a little at a time. Like the Jews, the Blacks have been segregated, the jobs for them had be regulated to jobs no one else wanted. They were given syphilis to see what happens, they were also made infertile by surgery. (This may not be the exact same thing as what was done to the Jews, but it is similar.) They also burned down their towns and killed all they could. (Greenwood District in Tulsa is an example.) They lined them up against riverbanks and shot them after the Civil War. The Jews were first lined up in front of trenches and shot. After the Civil War they also hung many from trees and left them there, which is why Billy Holiday wrote the song, “Strange Fruit.� Today, they put Blacks in prison when the white man gets off for the same crime. This takes away their rights, and when they get out, they have no right to vote, etc. The police were created after the Civil War to crack down on Blacks. While not all police are bad, they murder Blacks and have been doing so over the years. It is really nothing new. The KKK have done their part. Hitler looked at our slavery and our treatment of the Blacks, also our genocide of the Native Peoples and copied it, only he had the power to round people up and do mass killings. If Trump could have, I believe he would have done the same. I am sure that there is more, as things keep coming up for me, but I think it is enough. Well, no it isn’t. The Jews lived in fear of their lives, never knowing when it was their turn to die. The Blacks live in fear of their lives, never knowing if a child of theirs is coming home or even if they will come home. They are not even safe in their homes.
