Today is the centennial of the birth of one of the greatest writers and thinkers the world has ever produced, James Baldwin. He was born on this day 100 years ago, August 2, 1924, in New York City and spent his life calling upon his country to live up to its ideals. He was a prophet and an oracle, and, because of his genius and because some things haven’t changed as much as we might like to think since he passed away in 1987, his words ring as true today as when he wrote them. “This is the charged, the dangerous moment,” he wrote in 1980, “when everything must be re-examined, must be made new, when nothing at all can be taken for granted.” Here’s more of Baldwin from throughout his life, much of it in relation to the Civil Rights Movement, of which he was a part: “We are the generation that must throw everything into the endeavor to remake America into what we say we want it to be. Without this endeavor, we will perish.” “Guilt is a luxury that we can no longer afford. I know you didn’t do it, and I didn’t do it either, but I am responsible for it because I am a man and a citizen of this country and you are responsible for it, too, for the very same reason.… Anyone who is trying to be conscious must begin to dismiss the vocabulary which we’ve used so long to cover it up, to lie about the way things are.” “People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction.” “We’ve got to be as clear-headed about human beings as possible, because we are still each other’s only hope.” “Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” I felt so empowered and inspired by him as I researched the stark truths of our country’s history and hierarchy, that I chose these words from Baldwin as the epigraph to Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents: “Because even if I should speak, no one would believe me. And no one would believe me precisely because they would know that what I said was true.”
Today is the centennial of the birth of one of the greatest writers and thinkers the world has ever produced, James Baldwin. He was born on this day 100 years ago, August 2, 1924, in New York City and spent his life calling upon his country to live up to its ideals. He was a prophet and an oracle, and, because of his genius and because some things haven’t changed as much as we might like to think since he passed away in 1987, his words ring as true today as when he wrote them. “This is the charged, the dangerous moment,” he wrote in 1980, “when everything must be re-examined, must be made new, when nothing at all can be taken for granted.” Here’s more of Baldwin from throughout his life, much of it in relation to the Civil Rights Movement, of which he was a part: “We are the generation that must throw everything into the endeavor to remake America into what we say we want it to be. Without this endeavor, we will perish.” “Guilt is a luxury that we can no longer afford. I know you didn’t do it, and I didn’t do it either, but I am responsible for it because I am a man and a citizen of this country and you are responsible for it, too, for the very same reason.… Anyone who is trying to be conscious must begin to dismiss the vocabulary which we’ve used so long to cover it up, to lie about the way things are.” “People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction.” “We’ve got to be as clear-headed about human beings as possible, because we are still each other’s only hope.” “Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” I felt so empowered and inspired by him as I researched the stark truths of our country’s history and hierarchy, that I chose these words from Baldwin as the epigraph to Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents: “Because even if I should speak, no one would believe me. And no one would believe me precisely because they would know that what I said was true.”
Today is the centennial of the birth of one of the greatest writers and thinkers the world has ever produced, James Baldwin. He was born on this day 100 years ago, August 2, 1924, in New York City and spent his life calling upon his country to live up to its ideals. He was a prophet and an oracle, and, because of his genius and because some things haven’t changed as much as we might like to think since he passed away in 1987, his words ring as true today as when he wrote them. “This is the charged, the dangerous moment,” he wrote in 1980, “when everything must be re-examined, must be made new, when nothing at all can be taken for granted.” Here’s more of Baldwin from throughout his life, much of it in relation to the Civil Rights Movement, of which he was a part: “We are the generation that must throw everything into the endeavor to remake America into what we say we want it to be. Without this endeavor, we will perish.” “Guilt is a luxury that we can no longer afford. I know you didn’t do it, and I didn’t do it either, but I am responsible for it because I am a man and a citizen of this country and you are responsible for it, too, for the very same reason.… Anyone who is trying to be conscious must begin to dismiss the vocabulary which we’ve used so long to cover it up, to lie about the way things are.” “People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction.” “We’ve got to be as clear-headed about human beings as possible, because we are still each other’s only hope.” “Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” I felt so empowered and inspired by him as I researched the stark truths of our country’s history and hierarchy, that I chose these words from Baldwin as the epigraph to Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents: “Because even if I should speak, no one would believe me. And no one would believe me precisely because they would know that what I said was true.”
Absolutely gobsmacked and over the moon! What a tribute to the people of the Great Migration and to this watershed epic in our country’s history, at a time when we need history more than ever. My heart is bursting with gratitude to everyone who nominated The Warmth of Other Suns to The New York Times’ list of the Best Books of the 21st Century (thus far) and who positioned it near the very top, at No. 2. It’s been electrifying to see literature take center stage in our culture this week with the daily unfurling of the list. This honor, to me, speaks to the beauty and power of narrative nonfiction. It’s a genre that plunges you into the lives of real people you otherwise would not know and is the closest you may ever come to “being” another person. It takes years and years of research and immersion to create a book like Warmth, to amass and distill mountains of fact and lived experience into literature that will keep you turning the page. I so appreciate critic Dwight Garner’s generous description: “Wilkerson’s intimate, stirring, meticulously researched and myth-dispelling book, which details the Great Migration of Black Americans from South to North and West from 1915 to 1970, is the most vital and compulsively readable work of history in recent memory….” At times like this, I think back with immense love and admiration for Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, George Swanson Starling and Dr. Robert Pershing Foster, who entrusted me with their lives and recollections not knowing the outcome. I so wish they could have lived to see this day and to know that their trials and triumphs have captivated so many for so long. Deepest gratitude to everyone. #bestbooks
Absolutely gobsmacked and over the moon! What a tribute to the people of the Great Migration and to this watershed epic in our country’s history, at a time when we need history more than ever. My heart is bursting with gratitude to everyone who nominated The Warmth of Other Suns to The New York Times’ list of the Best Books of the 21st Century (thus far) and who positioned it near the very top, at No. 2. It’s been electrifying to see literature take center stage in our culture this week with the daily unfurling of the list. This honor, to me, speaks to the beauty and power of narrative nonfiction. It’s a genre that plunges you into the lives of real people you otherwise would not know and is the closest you may ever come to “being” another person. It takes years and years of research and immersion to create a book like Warmth, to amass and distill mountains of fact and lived experience into literature that will keep you turning the page. I so appreciate critic Dwight Garner’s generous description: “Wilkerson’s intimate, stirring, meticulously researched and myth-dispelling book, which details the Great Migration of Black Americans from South to North and West from 1915 to 1970, is the most vital and compulsively readable work of history in recent memory….” At times like this, I think back with immense love and admiration for Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, George Swanson Starling and Dr. Robert Pershing Foster, who entrusted me with their lives and recollections not knowing the outcome. I so wish they could have lived to see this day and to know that their trials and triumphs have captivated so many for so long. Deepest gratitude to everyone. #bestbooks
Absolutely gobsmacked and over the moon! What a tribute to the people of the Great Migration and to this watershed epic in our country’s history, at a time when we need history more than ever. My heart is bursting with gratitude to everyone who nominated The Warmth of Other Suns to The New York Times’ list of the Best Books of the 21st Century (thus far) and who positioned it near the very top, at No. 2. It’s been electrifying to see literature take center stage in our culture this week with the daily unfurling of the list. This honor, to me, speaks to the beauty and power of narrative nonfiction. It’s a genre that plunges you into the lives of real people you otherwise would not know and is the closest you may ever come to “being” another person. It takes years and years of research and immersion to create a book like Warmth, to amass and distill mountains of fact and lived experience into literature that will keep you turning the page. I so appreciate critic Dwight Garner’s generous description: “Wilkerson’s intimate, stirring, meticulously researched and myth-dispelling book, which details the Great Migration of Black Americans from South to North and West from 1915 to 1970, is the most vital and compulsively readable work of history in recent memory….” At times like this, I think back with immense love and admiration for Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, George Swanson Starling and Dr. Robert Pershing Foster, who entrusted me with their lives and recollections not knowing the outcome. I so wish they could have lived to see this day and to know that their trials and triumphs have captivated so many for so long. Deepest gratitude to everyone. #bestbooks
Absolutely gobsmacked and over the moon! What a tribute to the people of the Great Migration and to this watershed epic in our country’s history, at a time when we need history more than ever. My heart is bursting with gratitude to everyone who nominated The Warmth of Other Suns to The New York Times’ list of the Best Books of the 21st Century (thus far) and who positioned it near the very top, at No. 2. It’s been electrifying to see literature take center stage in our culture this week with the daily unfurling of the list. This honor, to me, speaks to the beauty and power of narrative nonfiction. It’s a genre that plunges you into the lives of real people you otherwise would not know and is the closest you may ever come to “being” another person. It takes years and years of research and immersion to create a book like Warmth, to amass and distill mountains of fact and lived experience into literature that will keep you turning the page. I so appreciate critic Dwight Garner’s generous description: “Wilkerson’s intimate, stirring, meticulously researched and myth-dispelling book, which details the Great Migration of Black Americans from South to North and West from 1915 to 1970, is the most vital and compulsively readable work of history in recent memory….” At times like this, I think back with immense love and admiration for Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, George Swanson Starling and Dr. Robert Pershing Foster, who entrusted me with their lives and recollections not knowing the outcome. I so wish they could have lived to see this day and to know that their trials and triumphs have captivated so many for so long. Deepest gratitude to everyone. #bestbooks
Absolutely gobsmacked and over the moon! What a tribute to the people of the Great Migration and to this watershed epic in our country’s history, at a time when we need history more than ever. My heart is bursting with gratitude to everyone who nominated The Warmth of Other Suns to The New York Times’ list of the Best Books of the 21st Century (thus far) and who positioned it near the very top, at No. 2. It’s been electrifying to see literature take center stage in our culture this week with the daily unfurling of the list. This honor, to me, speaks to the beauty and power of narrative nonfiction. It’s a genre that plunges you into the lives of real people you otherwise would not know and is the closest you may ever come to “being” another person. It takes years and years of research and immersion to create a book like Warmth, to amass and distill mountains of fact and lived experience into literature that will keep you turning the page. I so appreciate critic Dwight Garner’s generous description: “Wilkerson’s intimate, stirring, meticulously researched and myth-dispelling book, which details the Great Migration of Black Americans from South to North and West from 1915 to 1970, is the most vital and compulsively readable work of history in recent memory….” At times like this, I think back with immense love and admiration for Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, George Swanson Starling and Dr. Robert Pershing Foster, who entrusted me with their lives and recollections not knowing the outcome. I so wish they could have lived to see this day and to know that their trials and triumphs have captivated so many for so long. Deepest gratitude to everyone. #bestbooks
There is a reason why the last week has been dominated by coverage of two very different individuals who share arbitrary characteristics that can define the fate of people in our country’s hierarchy. Two Black women — one at the very top of society’s power structure, running to be the country’s first woman president and evoking the coarsest attacks on her intelligence and private life, and the other at the opposite end, a mother of two in Springfield, Illinois, who called 911 for help and was instead killed point blank by a sheriff’s deputy in her own home, caught on body cam for the world to see. These two women are bookends of our country’s unaddressed history and persistent inequalities. It seems a karmic confluence of events, to challenge our vision of who belongs where in our society at this singular moment, to force us to see the centuries-old stereotypes and reckless disregard of those who have been assigned to the lowest rung of perceived deservedness and worthiness on the basis of the arbitrary characteristics of being born a woman of color in this country. In this time of both stark juxtaposition and connection, Vice President Kamala Harris, from the campaign trail, called the grieving family of Sonya Massey. “She gave us her heartfelt condolences,” Massey’s father James Wilburn told the news site The Shade Room, “and she let us know that she is with us 100 percent, that this senseless killing must stop.” The circumstances of these two people, subordinated historically by gender and race, could not be more different. Yet the response to what catapulted them to the headlines has been swift and extraordinary — from the record-setting fundraisers and rallies for Harris to the near immediate arrest and homicide charge against the sheriff’s deputy shown shooting Massey on the body cam, a rarity in such cases. The response speaks to the wisdom of Albert Einstein’s words about overcoming racial injustice, words which became the epigraph to Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Einstein said: “If the majority knew of the root of this evil, then the road to its cure would not be long.”
There is a reason why the last week has been dominated by coverage of two very different individuals who share arbitrary characteristics that can define the fate of people in our country’s hierarchy. Two Black women — one at the very top of society’s power structure, running to be the country’s first woman president and evoking the coarsest attacks on her intelligence and private life, and the other at the opposite end, a mother of two in Springfield, Illinois, who called 911 for help and was instead killed point blank by a sheriff’s deputy in her own home, caught on body cam for the world to see. These two women are bookends of our country’s unaddressed history and persistent inequalities. It seems a karmic confluence of events, to challenge our vision of who belongs where in our society at this singular moment, to force us to see the centuries-old stereotypes and reckless disregard of those who have been assigned to the lowest rung of perceived deservedness and worthiness on the basis of the arbitrary characteristics of being born a woman of color in this country. In this time of both stark juxtaposition and connection, Vice President Kamala Harris, from the campaign trail, called the grieving family of Sonya Massey. “She gave us her heartfelt condolences,” Massey’s father James Wilburn told the news site The Shade Room, “and she let us know that she is with us 100 percent, that this senseless killing must stop.” The circumstances of these two people, subordinated historically by gender and race, could not be more different. Yet the response to what catapulted them to the headlines has been swift and extraordinary — from the record-setting fundraisers and rallies for Harris to the near immediate arrest and homicide charge against the sheriff’s deputy shown shooting Massey on the body cam, a rarity in such cases. The response speaks to the wisdom of Albert Einstein’s words about overcoming racial injustice, words which became the epigraph to Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Einstein said: “If the majority knew of the root of this evil, then the road to its cure would not be long.”
There is a reason why the last week has been dominated by coverage of two very different individuals who share arbitrary characteristics that can define the fate of people in our country’s hierarchy. Two Black women — one at the very top of society’s power structure, running to be the country’s first woman president and evoking the coarsest attacks on her intelligence and private life, and the other at the opposite end, a mother of two in Springfield, Illinois, who called 911 for help and was instead killed point blank by a sheriff’s deputy in her own home, caught on body cam for the world to see. These two women are bookends of our country’s unaddressed history and persistent inequalities. It seems a karmic confluence of events, to challenge our vision of who belongs where in our society at this singular moment, to force us to see the centuries-old stereotypes and reckless disregard of those who have been assigned to the lowest rung of perceived deservedness and worthiness on the basis of the arbitrary characteristics of being born a woman of color in this country. In this time of both stark juxtaposition and connection, Vice President Kamala Harris, from the campaign trail, called the grieving family of Sonya Massey. “She gave us her heartfelt condolences,” Massey’s father James Wilburn told the news site The Shade Room, “and she let us know that she is with us 100 percent, that this senseless killing must stop.” The circumstances of these two people, subordinated historically by gender and race, could not be more different. Yet the response to what catapulted them to the headlines has been swift and extraordinary — from the record-setting fundraisers and rallies for Harris to the near immediate arrest and homicide charge against the sheriff’s deputy shown shooting Massey on the body cam, a rarity in such cases. The response speaks to the wisdom of Albert Einstein’s words about overcoming racial injustice, words which became the epigraph to Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Einstein said: “If the majority knew of the root of this evil, then the road to its cure would not be long.”
There is a reason why the last week has been dominated by coverage of two very different individuals who share arbitrary characteristics that can define the fate of people in our country’s hierarchy. Two Black women — one at the very top of society’s power structure, running to be the country’s first woman president and evoking the coarsest attacks on her intelligence and private life, and the other at the opposite end, a mother of two in Springfield, Illinois, who called 911 for help and was instead killed point blank by a sheriff’s deputy in her own home, caught on body cam for the world to see. These two women are bookends of our country’s unaddressed history and persistent inequalities. It seems a karmic confluence of events, to challenge our vision of who belongs where in our society at this singular moment, to force us to see the centuries-old stereotypes and reckless disregard of those who have been assigned to the lowest rung of perceived deservedness and worthiness on the basis of the arbitrary characteristics of being born a woman of color in this country. In this time of both stark juxtaposition and connection, Vice President Kamala Harris, from the campaign trail, called the grieving family of Sonya Massey. “She gave us her heartfelt condolences,” Massey’s father James Wilburn told the news site The Shade Room, “and she let us know that she is with us 100 percent, that this senseless killing must stop.” The circumstances of these two people, subordinated historically by gender and race, could not be more different. Yet the response to what catapulted them to the headlines has been swift and extraordinary — from the record-setting fundraisers and rallies for Harris to the near immediate arrest and homicide charge against the sheriff’s deputy shown shooting Massey on the body cam, a rarity in such cases. The response speaks to the wisdom of Albert Einstein’s words about overcoming racial injustice, words which became the epigraph to Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Einstein said: “If the majority knew of the root of this evil, then the road to its cure would not be long.”
There is a reason why the last week has been dominated by coverage of two very different individuals who share arbitrary characteristics that can define the fate of people in our country’s hierarchy. Two Black women — one at the very top of society’s power structure, running to be the country’s first woman president and evoking the coarsest attacks on her intelligence and private life, and the other at the opposite end, a mother of two in Springfield, Illinois, who called 911 for help and was instead killed point blank by a sheriff’s deputy in her own home, caught on body cam for the world to see. These two women are bookends of our country’s unaddressed history and persistent inequalities. It seems a karmic confluence of events, to challenge our vision of who belongs where in our society at this singular moment, to force us to see the centuries-old stereotypes and reckless disregard of those who have been assigned to the lowest rung of perceived deservedness and worthiness on the basis of the arbitrary characteristics of being born a woman of color in this country. In this time of both stark juxtaposition and connection, Vice President Kamala Harris, from the campaign trail, called the grieving family of Sonya Massey. “She gave us her heartfelt condolences,” Massey’s father James Wilburn told the news site The Shade Room, “and she let us know that she is with us 100 percent, that this senseless killing must stop.” The circumstances of these two people, subordinated historically by gender and race, could not be more different. Yet the response to what catapulted them to the headlines has been swift and extraordinary — from the record-setting fundraisers and rallies for Harris to the near immediate arrest and homicide charge against the sheriff’s deputy shown shooting Massey on the body cam, a rarity in such cases. The response speaks to the wisdom of Albert Einstein’s words about overcoming racial injustice, words which became the epigraph to Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Einstein said: “If the majority knew of the root of this evil, then the road to its cure would not be long.”
There is a reason why the last week has been dominated by coverage of two very different individuals who share arbitrary characteristics that can define the fate of people in our country’s hierarchy. Two Black women — one at the very top of society’s power structure, running to be the country’s first woman president and evoking the coarsest attacks on her intelligence and private life, and the other at the opposite end, a mother of two in Springfield, Illinois, who called 911 for help and was instead killed point blank by a sheriff’s deputy in her own home, caught on body cam for the world to see. These two women are bookends of our country’s unaddressed history and persistent inequalities. It seems a karmic confluence of events, to challenge our vision of who belongs where in our society at this singular moment, to force us to see the centuries-old stereotypes and reckless disregard of those who have been assigned to the lowest rung of perceived deservedness and worthiness on the basis of the arbitrary characteristics of being born a woman of color in this country. In this time of both stark juxtaposition and connection, Vice President Kamala Harris, from the campaign trail, called the grieving family of Sonya Massey. “She gave us her heartfelt condolences,” Massey’s father James Wilburn told the news site The Shade Room, “and she let us know that she is with us 100 percent, that this senseless killing must stop.” The circumstances of these two people, subordinated historically by gender and race, could not be more different. Yet the response to what catapulted them to the headlines has been swift and extraordinary — from the record-setting fundraisers and rallies for Harris to the near immediate arrest and homicide charge against the sheriff’s deputy shown shooting Massey on the body cam, a rarity in such cases. The response speaks to the wisdom of Albert Einstein’s words about overcoming racial injustice, words which became the epigraph to Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Einstein said: “If the majority knew of the root of this evil, then the road to its cure would not be long.”
Who would ever choose to spend years and years on a book (or any project, for that matter), only to have it come out in the middle of a global pandemic when everything was on lockdown and when there was no way to know how, or if, it would reach anyone or how they would respond? It was four years ago today that, in that isolating and virtual landscape, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents came into the world. There was no book tour— no bookstores or libraries were open. It was in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and mere months before one of the most fraught and pivotal presidential elections of our lifetimes, that, unbeknownst to us, would lead to an insurrection. It turned out that people found Caste after all, in part because it helped to explain what had defied explanation, training a searchlight on the ruptures we have inherited as a nation. It seems that this was the exact moment it was intended to come into the world. Readers kept it on The New York Times bestsellers list for 58 weeks in hardcover and months more in paperback. No longer restricted as before, I’ve been making up for lost time this past year, criss-crossing the country from Boston to Baton Rouge, from New York to Seattle, and cities in between, relishing the chance to see and to commune with you in person. Thank you for recognizing that caste is not theoretical, but is, in fact, built into the foundation of our country. It is playing out before our very eyes as we observe divisions that strain comprehension until you look at the x-ray that caste provides us. As many of you have said to me, once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And on this fourth birthday of my second-born book, I wish to express — and I hope that you feel — the love and gratitude I have for every single one of you. Thank you for reading my work and allowing it to shape how you see the world. —— Here are a few scenes from the road: Duke University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tanglewood, Emory University, Cleveland, Buffalo, Southern University, Queens University, a beautiful ovation in Boston. #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents
Who would ever choose to spend years and years on a book (or any project, for that matter), only to have it come out in the middle of a global pandemic when everything was on lockdown and when there was no way to know how, or if, it would reach anyone or how they would respond? It was four years ago today that, in that isolating and virtual landscape, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents came into the world. There was no book tour— no bookstores or libraries were open. It was in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and mere months before one of the most fraught and pivotal presidential elections of our lifetimes, that, unbeknownst to us, would lead to an insurrection. It turned out that people found Caste after all, in part because it helped to explain what had defied explanation, training a searchlight on the ruptures we have inherited as a nation. It seems that this was the exact moment it was intended to come into the world. Readers kept it on The New York Times bestsellers list for 58 weeks in hardcover and months more in paperback. No longer restricted as before, I’ve been making up for lost time this past year, criss-crossing the country from Boston to Baton Rouge, from New York to Seattle, and cities in between, relishing the chance to see and to commune with you in person. Thank you for recognizing that caste is not theoretical, but is, in fact, built into the foundation of our country. It is playing out before our very eyes as we observe divisions that strain comprehension until you look at the x-ray that caste provides us. As many of you have said to me, once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And on this fourth birthday of my second-born book, I wish to express — and I hope that you feel — the love and gratitude I have for every single one of you. Thank you for reading my work and allowing it to shape how you see the world. —— Here are a few scenes from the road: Duke University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tanglewood, Emory University, Cleveland, Buffalo, Southern University, Queens University, a beautiful ovation in Boston. #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents
Who would ever choose to spend years and years on a book (or any project, for that matter), only to have it come out in the middle of a global pandemic when everything was on lockdown and when there was no way to know how, or if, it would reach anyone or how they would respond? It was four years ago today that, in that isolating and virtual landscape, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents came into the world. There was no book tour— no bookstores or libraries were open. It was in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and mere months before one of the most fraught and pivotal presidential elections of our lifetimes, that, unbeknownst to us, would lead to an insurrection. It turned out that people found Caste after all, in part because it helped to explain what had defied explanation, training a searchlight on the ruptures we have inherited as a nation. It seems that this was the exact moment it was intended to come into the world. Readers kept it on The New York Times bestsellers list for 58 weeks in hardcover and months more in paperback. No longer restricted as before, I’ve been making up for lost time this past year, criss-crossing the country from Boston to Baton Rouge, from New York to Seattle, and cities in between, relishing the chance to see and to commune with you in person. Thank you for recognizing that caste is not theoretical, but is, in fact, built into the foundation of our country. It is playing out before our very eyes as we observe divisions that strain comprehension until you look at the x-ray that caste provides us. As many of you have said to me, once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And on this fourth birthday of my second-born book, I wish to express — and I hope that you feel — the love and gratitude I have for every single one of you. Thank you for reading my work and allowing it to shape how you see the world. —— Here are a few scenes from the road: Duke University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tanglewood, Emory University, Cleveland, Buffalo, Southern University, Queens University, a beautiful ovation in Boston. #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents
Who would ever choose to spend years and years on a book (or any project, for that matter), only to have it come out in the middle of a global pandemic when everything was on lockdown and when there was no way to know how, or if, it would reach anyone or how they would respond? It was four years ago today that, in that isolating and virtual landscape, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents came into the world. There was no book tour— no bookstores or libraries were open. It was in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and mere months before one of the most fraught and pivotal presidential elections of our lifetimes, that, unbeknownst to us, would lead to an insurrection. It turned out that people found Caste after all, in part because it helped to explain what had defied explanation, training a searchlight on the ruptures we have inherited as a nation. It seems that this was the exact moment it was intended to come into the world. Readers kept it on The New York Times bestsellers list for 58 weeks in hardcover and months more in paperback. No longer restricted as before, I’ve been making up for lost time this past year, criss-crossing the country from Boston to Baton Rouge, from New York to Seattle, and cities in between, relishing the chance to see and to commune with you in person. Thank you for recognizing that caste is not theoretical, but is, in fact, built into the foundation of our country. It is playing out before our very eyes as we observe divisions that strain comprehension until you look at the x-ray that caste provides us. As many of you have said to me, once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And on this fourth birthday of my second-born book, I wish to express — and I hope that you feel — the love and gratitude I have for every single one of you. Thank you for reading my work and allowing it to shape how you see the world. —— Here are a few scenes from the road: Duke University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tanglewood, Emory University, Cleveland, Buffalo, Southern University, Queens University, a beautiful ovation in Boston. #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents
Who would ever choose to spend years and years on a book (or any project, for that matter), only to have it come out in the middle of a global pandemic when everything was on lockdown and when there was no way to know how, or if, it would reach anyone or how they would respond? It was four years ago today that, in that isolating and virtual landscape, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents came into the world. There was no book tour— no bookstores or libraries were open. It was in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and mere months before one of the most fraught and pivotal presidential elections of our lifetimes, that, unbeknownst to us, would lead to an insurrection. It turned out that people found Caste after all, in part because it helped to explain what had defied explanation, training a searchlight on the ruptures we have inherited as a nation. It seems that this was the exact moment it was intended to come into the world. Readers kept it on The New York Times bestsellers list for 58 weeks in hardcover and months more in paperback. No longer restricted as before, I’ve been making up for lost time this past year, criss-crossing the country from Boston to Baton Rouge, from New York to Seattle, and cities in between, relishing the chance to see and to commune with you in person. Thank you for recognizing that caste is not theoretical, but is, in fact, built into the foundation of our country. It is playing out before our very eyes as we observe divisions that strain comprehension until you look at the x-ray that caste provides us. As many of you have said to me, once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And on this fourth birthday of my second-born book, I wish to express — and I hope that you feel — the love and gratitude I have for every single one of you. Thank you for reading my work and allowing it to shape how you see the world. —— Here are a few scenes from the road: Duke University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tanglewood, Emory University, Cleveland, Buffalo, Southern University, Queens University, a beautiful ovation in Boston. #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents
Who would ever choose to spend years and years on a book (or any project, for that matter), only to have it come out in the middle of a global pandemic when everything was on lockdown and when there was no way to know how, or if, it would reach anyone or how they would respond? It was four years ago today that, in that isolating and virtual landscape, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents came into the world. There was no book tour— no bookstores or libraries were open. It was in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and mere months before one of the most fraught and pivotal presidential elections of our lifetimes, that, unbeknownst to us, would lead to an insurrection. It turned out that people found Caste after all, in part because it helped to explain what had defied explanation, training a searchlight on the ruptures we have inherited as a nation. It seems that this was the exact moment it was intended to come into the world. Readers kept it on The New York Times bestsellers list for 58 weeks in hardcover and months more in paperback. No longer restricted as before, I’ve been making up for lost time this past year, criss-crossing the country from Boston to Baton Rouge, from New York to Seattle, and cities in between, relishing the chance to see and to commune with you in person. Thank you for recognizing that caste is not theoretical, but is, in fact, built into the foundation of our country. It is playing out before our very eyes as we observe divisions that strain comprehension until you look at the x-ray that caste provides us. As many of you have said to me, once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And on this fourth birthday of my second-born book, I wish to express — and I hope that you feel — the love and gratitude I have for every single one of you. Thank you for reading my work and allowing it to shape how you see the world. —— Here are a few scenes from the road: Duke University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tanglewood, Emory University, Cleveland, Buffalo, Southern University, Queens University, a beautiful ovation in Boston. #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents
Who would ever choose to spend years and years on a book (or any project, for that matter), only to have it come out in the middle of a global pandemic when everything was on lockdown and when there was no way to know how, or if, it would reach anyone or how they would respond? It was four years ago today that, in that isolating and virtual landscape, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents came into the world. There was no book tour— no bookstores or libraries were open. It was in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and mere months before one of the most fraught and pivotal presidential elections of our lifetimes, that, unbeknownst to us, would lead to an insurrection. It turned out that people found Caste after all, in part because it helped to explain what had defied explanation, training a searchlight on the ruptures we have inherited as a nation. It seems that this was the exact moment it was intended to come into the world. Readers kept it on The New York Times bestsellers list for 58 weeks in hardcover and months more in paperback. No longer restricted as before, I’ve been making up for lost time this past year, criss-crossing the country from Boston to Baton Rouge, from New York to Seattle, and cities in between, relishing the chance to see and to commune with you in person. Thank you for recognizing that caste is not theoretical, but is, in fact, built into the foundation of our country. It is playing out before our very eyes as we observe divisions that strain comprehension until you look at the x-ray that caste provides us. As many of you have said to me, once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And on this fourth birthday of my second-born book, I wish to express — and I hope that you feel — the love and gratitude I have for every single one of you. Thank you for reading my work and allowing it to shape how you see the world. —— Here are a few scenes from the road: Duke University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tanglewood, Emory University, Cleveland, Buffalo, Southern University, Queens University, a beautiful ovation in Boston. #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents
Who would ever choose to spend years and years on a book (or any project, for that matter), only to have it come out in the middle of a global pandemic when everything was on lockdown and when there was no way to know how, or if, it would reach anyone or how they would respond? It was four years ago today that, in that isolating and virtual landscape, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents came into the world. There was no book tour— no bookstores or libraries were open. It was in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and mere months before one of the most fraught and pivotal presidential elections of our lifetimes, that, unbeknownst to us, would lead to an insurrection. It turned out that people found Caste after all, in part because it helped to explain what had defied explanation, training a searchlight on the ruptures we have inherited as a nation. It seems that this was the exact moment it was intended to come into the world. Readers kept it on The New York Times bestsellers list for 58 weeks in hardcover and months more in paperback. No longer restricted as before, I’ve been making up for lost time this past year, criss-crossing the country from Boston to Baton Rouge, from New York to Seattle, and cities in between, relishing the chance to see and to commune with you in person. Thank you for recognizing that caste is not theoretical, but is, in fact, built into the foundation of our country. It is playing out before our very eyes as we observe divisions that strain comprehension until you look at the x-ray that caste provides us. As many of you have said to me, once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And on this fourth birthday of my second-born book, I wish to express — and I hope that you feel — the love and gratitude I have for every single one of you. Thank you for reading my work and allowing it to shape how you see the world. —— Here are a few scenes from the road: Duke University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tanglewood, Emory University, Cleveland, Buffalo, Southern University, Queens University, a beautiful ovation in Boston. #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents
Who would ever choose to spend years and years on a book (or any project, for that matter), only to have it come out in the middle of a global pandemic when everything was on lockdown and when there was no way to know how, or if, it would reach anyone or how they would respond? It was four years ago today that, in that isolating and virtual landscape, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents came into the world. There was no book tour— no bookstores or libraries were open. It was in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and mere months before one of the most fraught and pivotal presidential elections of our lifetimes, that, unbeknownst to us, would lead to an insurrection. It turned out that people found Caste after all, in part because it helped to explain what had defied explanation, training a searchlight on the ruptures we have inherited as a nation. It seems that this was the exact moment it was intended to come into the world. Readers kept it on The New York Times bestsellers list for 58 weeks in hardcover and months more in paperback. No longer restricted as before, I’ve been making up for lost time this past year, criss-crossing the country from Boston to Baton Rouge, from New York to Seattle, and cities in between, relishing the chance to see and to commune with you in person. Thank you for recognizing that caste is not theoretical, but is, in fact, built into the foundation of our country. It is playing out before our very eyes as we observe divisions that strain comprehension until you look at the x-ray that caste provides us. As many of you have said to me, once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And on this fourth birthday of my second-born book, I wish to express — and I hope that you feel — the love and gratitude I have for every single one of you. Thank you for reading my work and allowing it to shape how you see the world. —— Here are a few scenes from the road: Duke University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tanglewood, Emory University, Cleveland, Buffalo, Southern University, Queens University, a beautiful ovation in Boston. #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents
Who would ever choose to spend years and years on a book (or any project, for that matter), only to have it come out in the middle of a global pandemic when everything was on lockdown and when there was no way to know how, or if, it would reach anyone or how they would respond? It was four years ago today that, in that isolating and virtual landscape, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents came into the world. There was no book tour— no bookstores or libraries were open. It was in the wake of the killing of George Floyd and mere months before one of the most fraught and pivotal presidential elections of our lifetimes, that, unbeknownst to us, would lead to an insurrection. It turned out that people found Caste after all, in part because it helped to explain what had defied explanation, training a searchlight on the ruptures we have inherited as a nation. It seems that this was the exact moment it was intended to come into the world. Readers kept it on The New York Times bestsellers list for 58 weeks in hardcover and months more in paperback. No longer restricted as before, I’ve been making up for lost time this past year, criss-crossing the country from Boston to Baton Rouge, from New York to Seattle, and cities in between, relishing the chance to see and to commune with you in person. Thank you for recognizing that caste is not theoretical, but is, in fact, built into the foundation of our country. It is playing out before our very eyes as we observe divisions that strain comprehension until you look at the x-ray that caste provides us. As many of you have said to me, once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And on this fourth birthday of my second-born book, I wish to express — and I hope that you feel — the love and gratitude I have for every single one of you. Thank you for reading my work and allowing it to shape how you see the world. —— Here are a few scenes from the road: Duke University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tanglewood, Emory University, Cleveland, Buffalo, Southern University, Queens University, a beautiful ovation in Boston. #castetheoriginsofourdiscontents
