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Caste is such an important book. It really should be required reading, in my opinion, especially for anyone in the United States. (also Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow) But I have to confess it took me a long time to get through it. I’m a slow reader anyway, and the relentless reality here is not easy to digest. Every interview I’ve ever seen (or heard) Elizabeth Wilkerson do has been outstanding. I still need to go back and read The Warmth of Other Suns.

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Wilkerson’s books are so riveting and simultaneously so difficult to read. I read the bits in CASTE about Black Americans in WWI to my World History students. I’d forgotten the story you highlight here, so I’ll have to go back and reread The Warmth of Other People’s Sons.

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Nov 12, 2023Liked by Diamond-Michael Scott

There is movie based on Wilkerson's Origins due out later this year. It's directed by Ava DuVernay, and the initial press has been very positive. https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/books/a45088252/isabel-wilkersons-caste-movie-makes-history/

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Thanks Michael. I’ll check this out

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Thank you for sharing. Wilkerson's books should be in every high school; they're beautifully written and so smart and informative. And it's always chilling to me to think—the murderers' children and grandchildren are walking around carrying who knows what beliefs ... and voting.

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author

100%

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Nov 12, 2023Liked by Diamond-Michael Scott

For sending a Christmas card. I've heard about the book but never read it. Need to look it up.

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Nov 12, 2023Liked by Diamond-Michael Scott

Ups now I see there are two books!

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Thank you for this. I have Wilkerson's Caste and have been considering what to read next. I think you've given me the nudge to pick it up.

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author

Great read. I highly recommend. But “Warmth of Other Suns” in my view is Wilkerson’s magnum opus.

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Nov 12, 2023Liked by Diamond-Michael Scott

Just breaks my heart. I was so naive as a kid, thinking the Civil Rights movement would fix the issues of violent racism, in all its versions, once and for all. Regardless, I still have hope, and books like these, despite the people who would try to silence them, are an important part of the solution, in my opinion.

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