“Like other old houses, America has an unseen skeleton: its caste system.” This is a quote from Isabel Wilkerson’s article “America’s Enduring Caste System”. Her metaphor is a glimpse into how the caste system is invisible and the foundation on which America was built. Wilkerson defines the caste system as an artificial construction, a fixed and embedded ranking of human value that sets the presumed supremacy of one group against the presumed inferiority of other groups. The author describes the caste system as controlling power, resources, respect, and authority. In America, race is the primary & invisible tool for castes. Race is a visible representation of social categorization, caste represents the underlying, invisible system that rigidly maintains social hierarchy. Another source I analyzed was “We Are…show more content… “We Are All Criminals'' shows how minorities with criminal records face systemic barriers to accessing employment, housing, education, government assistance, travel, and voting. The “America’s Enduring Caste System” focused more on the parallels between the caste system in India compared to the United States. The article opens by describing Dr. Martin Luther King's experience visiting India. “At that moment, he realized that the Land of the Free had imposed a caste system not unlike the caste system of India and that he had lived under that system all his life” (Wilkerson). After his visit, Dr.King realized how widespread the caste system was and saw firsthand how it affected the Indians. Next, the author describes her own experiences visiting India to compare their caste to the Americas. Both countries escaped British rule, exiled Indigenous people, and abolished formal caste laws. The main difference between the two is the caste hierarchy. “The American system was founded as a primarily two-tiered hierarchy, white and
