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In the United States, inequality tends to be framed as an issue of either class, race or both. Consider, for example, criticism that Republicans’ new tax plan is a weapon of “class warfare,” or accusations that the recent U.S. government shutdown was racist.
As an India-born novelist and scholar who teaches in the United States, I have come to see America’s stratified society through a different lens: caste.
Many Americans would be appalled to think that anything like caste could exist in a country allegedly founded on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. After all, India’s atrocious caste system determines social status by birth, compels marriage within a community and restricts job opportunity.
But is the U.S. really so different?
What is caste?
I first realized that caste could shed a new light on American inequality in 2016, when I was scholar-in-residence at the Center for Critical Race Studies at the University of Houston-Downtown.
There, I found that my public presentations on caste resonated deeply with students, who were largely working-class, black and Latino. I believe that’s because two […]
A big equalizer is wealth. Wealthy people of any race or creed have many more options than poor uneducated people. Wealthy & educated people have an easier time moving to a welcoming place. Most people choose to move to the US.
As long as crony capitalism, financialization and rigged markets reign in the U.S. this will be the result. It is by design.