Caste: Pillars 6 & 7

09/29/20 • 30 min

Part six of Oprah’s discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Isabel Wilkerson and readers of the book, Caste: The Origins of our Discontents. The sixth episode in the eight-part series focuses on the sixth pillar of Caste, “Dehumanization and Stigma” and the seventh pillar, “Terror as Enforcement, Cruelty as a Means of Control.” Isabel explains how dehumanization is the fundamental leveler that allows everything else in the caste system to occur. Plus, how terror through lynching and brutality has been and continues to be used to keep the subordinate caste in its place. Melba Patillo Beals, one of the original Little Rock Nine school children who integrated the very first high school in Arkansas in 1957, recounts the horrific details of a lynching she witnessed when she was five years old.

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Caste: Pillar Five

Part five of Oprah’s discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Isabel Wilkerson and readers of the book, Caste: The Origins of our Discontents. The fifth episode in the eight-part series focuses on the fifth pillar of Caste, “Occupational Hierarchy.” Isabel explores how the subordinate caste are often relegated to menial forms of labor, which further cements their place in the bottom rung of society in the eyes of the dominant caste. We’ll hear from an executive from a major tech company, a manager who is in charge of recruiting new employees and a high school principal.

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Caste: Pillar 8

Part seven of Oprah’s discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Isabel Wilkerson and readers of the book, Caste: The Origins of our Discontents. The penultimate episode in the eight-part series focuses on the eighth and final pillar of Caste, "Inherent Superiority Versus Inherent Inferiority” which describes how the dominant caste were conditioned to believe that one group is superior and inherently deserving of the best in a given society. Isabel also explores why the dominant cast believes those deemed lowest are deserving of their plight. David Holt, mayor of Oklahoma City, joins Oprah, Isabel and other guests to discuss how the caste system has impacted his city.