It is being asked over and over again in this final week before election day: Why is this election so close? (And now with the election over, how did this happen?) The answer: When you look at this as only an election, then it doesn’t make sense. But when you look at this as an existential crisis over what our country will be, then it starts to make sense. Looking at it through the lens of caste, it makes perfect sense. People are not voting against their own interests. They are voting for the interests that matter most to them. For many people, as we saw on Jan 6, that means maintaining their position at the top of the American caste system, with all the rights and entitlements that come along with it. Tensions are on the rise as our country faces an existential crisis unlike any we have seen before, due to the projections that, by 2042, the historic white majority would no longer be in the majority. As it is, in 2020, the census found that, for the first time in American history, the white population was the only group whose numbers fell while others remained steady or grew. This is an existential crisis for everyone because we have never experienced this configuration as a nation. That is why we’re seeing a fixation on immigration in this country — as to which kind of immigrants are welcomed versus which would be deported, and a fixation on curtailing abortion and ensuring more births. The task before us is to imagine what kind of nation we want to be and what we are willing to do to achieve it. It was an honor to discuss this with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell and to hear him say of the caste perspective on this fraught election: “I feel that I finally have an explanation that I get. I just haven’t had one before tonight.” These were the reasons I wrote Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. For fuller insights, I invite you to consider chapters 25 and 26, along with the Afterword, of Caste, in which I forewarned of what we are seeing. The interview is available to hear on the YouTube Channel for MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, starting at minute 20:46.
It is being asked over and over again in this final week before election day: Why is this election so close? (And now with the election over, how did this happen?) The answer: When you look at this as only an election, then it doesn’t make sense. But when you look at this as an existential crisis over what our country will be, then it starts to make sense. Looking at it through the lens of caste, it makes perfect sense. People are not voting against their own interests. They are voting for the interests that matter most to them. For many people, as we saw on Jan 6, that means maintaining their position at the top of the American caste system, with all the rights and entitlements that come along with it. Tensions are on the rise as our country faces an existential crisis unlike any we have seen before, due to the projections that, by 2042, the historic white majority would no longer be in the majority. As it is, in 2020, the census found that, for the first time in American history, the white population was the only group whose numbers fell while others remained steady or grew. This is an existential crisis for everyone because we have never experienced this configuration as a nation. That is why we’re seeing a fixation on immigration in this country — as to which kind of immigrants are welcomed versus which would be deported, and a fixation on curtailing abortion and ensuring more births. The task before us is to imagine what kind of nation we want to be and what we are willing to do to achieve it. It was an honor to discuss this with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell and to hear him say of the caste perspective on this fraught election: “I feel that I finally have an explanation that I get. I just haven’t had one before tonight.” These were the reasons I wrote Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. For fuller insights, I invite you to consider chapters 25 and 26, along with the Afterword, of Caste, in which I forewarned of what we are seeing. The interview is available to hear on the YouTube Channel for MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, starting at minute 20:46.
It is being asked over and over again in this final week before election day: Why is this election so close? (And now with the election over, how did this happen?) The answer: When you look at this as only an election, then it doesn’t make sense. But when you look at this as an existential crisis over what our country will be, then it starts to make sense. Looking at it through the lens of caste, it makes perfect sense. People are not voting against their own interests. They are voting for the interests that matter most to them. For many people, as we saw on Jan 6, that means maintaining their position at the top of the American caste system, with all the rights and entitlements that come along with it. Tensions are on the rise as our country faces an existential crisis unlike any we have seen before, due to the projections that, by 2042, the historic white majority would no longer be in the majority. As it is, in 2020, the census found that, for the first time in American history, the white population was the only group whose numbers fell while others remained steady or grew. This is an existential crisis for everyone because we have never experienced this configuration as a nation. That is why we’re seeing a fixation on immigration in this country — as to which kind of immigrants are welcomed versus which would be deported, and a fixation on curtailing abortion and ensuring more births. The task before us is to imagine what kind of nation we want to be and what we are willing to do to achieve it. It was an honor to discuss this with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell and to hear him say of the caste perspective on this fraught election: “I feel that I finally have an explanation that I get. I just haven’t had one before tonight.” These were the reasons I wrote Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. For fuller insights, I invite you to consider chapters 25 and 26, along with the Afterword, of Caste, in which I forewarned of what we are seeing. The interview is available to hear on the YouTube Channel for MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, starting at minute 20:46.
It is being asked over and over again in this final week before election day: Why is this election so close? (And now with the election over, how did this happen?) The answer: When you look at this as only an election, then it doesn’t make sense. But when you look at this as an existential crisis over what our country will be, then it starts to make sense. Looking at it through the lens of caste, it makes perfect sense. People are not voting against their own interests. They are voting for the interests that matter most to them. For many people, as we saw on Jan 6, that means maintaining their position at the top of the American caste system, with all the rights and entitlements that come along with it. Tensions are on the rise as our country faces an existential crisis unlike any we have seen before, due to the projections that, by 2042, the historic white majority would no longer be in the majority. As it is, in 2020, the census found that, for the first time in American history, the white population was the only group whose numbers fell while others remained steady or grew. This is an existential crisis for everyone because we have never experienced this configuration as a nation. That is why we’re seeing a fixation on immigration in this country — as to which kind of immigrants are welcomed versus which would be deported, and a fixation on curtailing abortion and ensuring more births. The task before us is to imagine what kind of nation we want to be and what we are willing to do to achieve it. It was an honor to discuss this with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell and to hear him say of the caste perspective on this fraught election: “I feel that I finally have an explanation that I get. I just haven’t had one before tonight.” These were the reasons I wrote Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. For fuller insights, I invite you to consider chapters 25 and 26, along with the Afterword, of Caste, in which I forewarned of what we are seeing. The interview is available to hear on the YouTube Channel for MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, starting at minute 20:46.
It is being asked over and over again in this final week before election day: Why is this election so close? (And now with the election over, how did this happen?) The answer: When you look at this as only an election, then it doesn’t make sense. But when you look at this as an existential crisis over what our country will be, then it starts to make sense. Looking at it through the lens of caste, it makes perfect sense. People are not voting against their own interests. They are voting for the interests that matter most to them. For many people, as we saw on Jan 6, that means maintaining their position at the top of the American caste system, with all the rights and entitlements that come along with it. Tensions are on the rise as our country faces an existential crisis unlike any we have seen before, due to the projections that, by 2042, the historic white majority would no longer be in the majority. As it is, in 2020, the census found that, for the first time in American history, the white population was the only group whose numbers fell while others remained steady or grew. This is an existential crisis for everyone because we have never experienced this configuration as a nation. That is why we’re seeing a fixation on immigration in this country — as to which kind of immigrants are welcomed versus which would be deported, and a fixation on curtailing abortion and ensuring more births. The task before us is to imagine what kind of nation we want to be and what we are willing to do to achieve it. It was an honor to discuss this with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell and to hear him say of the caste perspective on this fraught election: “I feel that I finally have an explanation that I get. I just haven’t had one before tonight.” These were the reasons I wrote Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. For fuller insights, I invite you to consider chapters 25 and 26, along with the Afterword, of Caste, in which I forewarned of what we are seeing. The interview is available to hear on the YouTube Channel for MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, starting at minute 20:46.
It is being asked over and over again in this final week before election day: Why is this election so close? (And now with the election over, how did this happen?) The answer: When you look at this as only an election, then it doesn’t make sense. But when you look at this as an existential crisis over what our country will be, then it starts to make sense. Looking at it through the lens of caste, it makes perfect sense. People are not voting against their own interests. They are voting for the interests that matter most to them. For many people, as we saw on Jan 6, that means maintaining their position at the top of the American caste system, with all the rights and entitlements that come along with it. Tensions are on the rise as our country faces an existential crisis unlike any we have seen before, due to the projections that, by 2042, the historic white majority would no longer be in the majority. As it is, in 2020, the census found that, for the first time in American history, the white population was the only group whose numbers fell while others remained steady or grew. This is an existential crisis for everyone because we have never experienced this configuration as a nation. That is why we’re seeing a fixation on immigration in this country — as to which kind of immigrants are welcomed versus which would be deported, and a fixation on curtailing abortion and ensuring more births. The task before us is to imagine what kind of nation we want to be and what we are willing to do to achieve it. It was an honor to discuss this with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell and to hear him say of the caste perspective on this fraught election: “I feel that I finally have an explanation that I get. I just haven’t had one before tonight.” These were the reasons I wrote Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. For fuller insights, I invite you to consider chapters 25 and 26, along with the Afterword, of Caste, in which I forewarned of what we are seeing. The interview is available to hear on the YouTube Channel for MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, starting at minute 20:46.
It is being asked over and over again in this final week before election day: Why is this election so close? (And now with the election over, how did this happen?) The answer: When you look at this as only an election, then it doesn’t make sense. But when you look at this as an existential crisis over what our country will be, then it starts to make sense. Looking at it through the lens of caste, it makes perfect sense. People are not voting against their own interests. They are voting for the interests that matter most to them. For many people, as we saw on Jan 6, that means maintaining their position at the top of the American caste system, with all the rights and entitlements that come along with it. Tensions are on the rise as our country faces an existential crisis unlike any we have seen before, due to the projections that, by 2042, the historic white majority would no longer be in the majority. As it is, in 2020, the census found that, for the first time in American history, the white population was the only group whose numbers fell while others remained steady or grew. This is an existential crisis for everyone because we have never experienced this configuration as a nation. That is why we’re seeing a fixation on immigration in this country — as to which kind of immigrants are welcomed versus which would be deported, and a fixation on curtailing abortion and ensuring more births. The task before us is to imagine what kind of nation we want to be and what we are willing to do to achieve it. It was an honor to discuss this with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell and to hear him say of the caste perspective on this fraught election: “I feel that I finally have an explanation that I get. I just haven’t had one before tonight.” These were the reasons I wrote Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. For fuller insights, I invite you to consider chapters 25 and 26, along with the Afterword, of Caste, in which I forewarned of what we are seeing. The interview is available to hear on the YouTube Channel for MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, starting at minute 20:46.
It is being asked over and over again in this final week before election day: Why is this election so close? (And now with the election over, how did this happen?) The answer: When you look at this as only an election, then it doesn’t make sense. But when you look at this as an existential crisis over what our country will be, then it starts to make sense. Looking at it through the lens of caste, it makes perfect sense. People are not voting against their own interests. They are voting for the interests that matter most to them. For many people, as we saw on Jan 6, that means maintaining their position at the top of the American caste system, with all the rights and entitlements that come along with it. Tensions are on the rise as our country faces an existential crisis unlike any we have seen before, due to the projections that, by 2042, the historic white majority would no longer be in the majority. As it is, in 2020, the census found that, for the first time in American history, the white population was the only group whose numbers fell while others remained steady or grew. This is an existential crisis for everyone because we have never experienced this configuration as a nation. That is why we’re seeing a fixation on immigration in this country — as to which kind of immigrants are welcomed versus which would be deported, and a fixation on curtailing abortion and ensuring more births. The task before us is to imagine what kind of nation we want to be and what we are willing to do to achieve it. It was an honor to discuss this with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell and to hear him say of the caste perspective on this fraught election: “I feel that I finally have an explanation that I get. I just haven’t had one before tonight.” These were the reasons I wrote Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. For fuller insights, I invite you to consider chapters 25 and 26, along with the Afterword, of Caste, in which I forewarned of what we are seeing. The interview is available to hear on the YouTube Channel for MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, starting at minute 20:46.
It is being asked over and over again in this final week before election day: Why is this election so close? (And now with the election over, how did this happen?) The answer: When you look at this as only an election, then it doesn’t make sense. But when you look at this as an existential crisis over what our country will be, then it starts to make sense. Looking at it through the lens of caste, it makes perfect sense. People are not voting against their own interests. They are voting for the interests that matter most to them. For many people, as we saw on Jan 6, that means maintaining their position at the top of the American caste system, with all the rights and entitlements that come along with it. Tensions are on the rise as our country faces an existential crisis unlike any we have seen before, due to the projections that, by 2042, the historic white majority would no longer be in the majority. As it is, in 2020, the census found that, for the first time in American history, the white population was the only group whose numbers fell while others remained steady or grew. This is an existential crisis for everyone because we have never experienced this configuration as a nation. That is why we’re seeing a fixation on immigration in this country — as to which kind of immigrants are welcomed versus which would be deported, and a fixation on curtailing abortion and ensuring more births. The task before us is to imagine what kind of nation we want to be and what we are willing to do to achieve it. It was an honor to discuss this with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell and to hear him say of the caste perspective on this fraught election: “I feel that I finally have an explanation that I get. I just haven’t had one before tonight.” These were the reasons I wrote Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. For fuller insights, I invite you to consider chapters 25 and 26, along with the Afterword, of Caste, in which I forewarned of what we are seeing. The interview is available to hear on the YouTube Channel for MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, starting at minute 20:46.
It is being asked over and over again in this final week before election day: Why is this election so close? (And now with the election over, how did this happen?) The answer: When you look at this as only an election, then it doesn’t make sense. But when you look at this as an existential crisis over what our country will be, then it starts to make sense. Looking at it through the lens of caste, it makes perfect sense. People are not voting against their own interests. They are voting for the interests that matter most to them. For many people, as we saw on Jan 6, that means maintaining their position at the top of the American caste system, with all the rights and entitlements that come along with it. Tensions are on the rise as our country faces an existential crisis unlike any we have seen before, due to the projections that, by 2042, the historic white majority would no longer be in the majority. As it is, in 2020, the census found that, for the first time in American history, the white population was the only group whose numbers fell while others remained steady or grew. This is an existential crisis for everyone because we have never experienced this configuration as a nation. That is why we’re seeing a fixation on immigration in this country — as to which kind of immigrants are welcomed versus which would be deported, and a fixation on curtailing abortion and ensuring more births. The task before us is to imagine what kind of nation we want to be and what we are willing to do to achieve it. It was an honor to discuss this with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell and to hear him say of the caste perspective on this fraught election: “I feel that I finally have an explanation that I get. I just haven’t had one before tonight.” These were the reasons I wrote Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. For fuller insights, I invite you to consider chapters 25 and 26, along with the Afterword, of Caste, in which I forewarned of what we are seeing. The interview is available to hear on the YouTube Channel for MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, starting at minute 20:46.
It is being asked over and over again in this final week before election day: Why is this election so close? (And now with the election over, how did this happen?) The answer: When you look at this as only an election, then it doesn’t make sense. But when you look at this as an existential crisis over what our country will be, then it starts to make sense. Looking at it through the lens of caste, it makes perfect sense. People are not voting against their own interests. They are voting for the interests that matter most to them. For many people, as we saw on Jan 6, that means maintaining their position at the top of the American caste system, with all the rights and entitlements that come along with it. Tensions are on the rise as our country faces an existential crisis unlike any we have seen before, due to the projections that, by 2042, the historic white majority would no longer be in the majority. As it is, in 2020, the census found that, for the first time in American history, the white population was the only group whose numbers fell while others remained steady or grew. This is an existential crisis for everyone because we have never experienced this configuration as a nation. That is why we’re seeing a fixation on immigration in this country — as to which kind of immigrants are welcomed versus which would be deported, and a fixation on curtailing abortion and ensuring more births. The task before us is to imagine what kind of nation we want to be and what we are willing to do to achieve it. It was an honor to discuss this with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell and to hear him say of the caste perspective on this fraught election: “I feel that I finally have an explanation that I get. I just haven’t had one before tonight.” These were the reasons I wrote Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. For fuller insights, I invite you to consider chapters 25 and 26, along with the Afterword, of Caste, in which I forewarned of what we are seeing. The interview is available to hear on the YouTube Channel for MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, starting at minute 20:46.
It is being asked over and over again in this final week before election day: Why is this election so close? (And now with the election over, how did this happen?) The answer: When you look at this as only an election, then it doesn’t make sense. But when you look at this as an existential crisis over what our country will be, then it starts to make sense. Looking at it through the lens of caste, it makes perfect sense. People are not voting against their own interests. They are voting for the interests that matter most to them. For many people, as we saw on Jan 6, that means maintaining their position at the top of the American caste system, with all the rights and entitlements that come along with it. Tensions are on the rise as our country faces an existential crisis unlike any we have seen before, due to the projections that, by 2042, the historic white majority would no longer be in the majority. As it is, in 2020, the census found that, for the first time in American history, the white population was the only group whose numbers fell while others remained steady or grew. This is an existential crisis for everyone because we have never experienced this configuration as a nation. That is why we’re seeing a fixation on immigration in this country — as to which kind of immigrants are welcomed versus which would be deported, and a fixation on curtailing abortion and ensuring more births. The task before us is to imagine what kind of nation we want to be and what we are willing to do to achieve it. It was an honor to discuss this with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell and to hear him say of the caste perspective on this fraught election: “I feel that I finally have an explanation that I get. I just haven’t had one before tonight.” These were the reasons I wrote Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. For fuller insights, I invite you to consider chapters 25 and 26, along with the Afterword, of Caste, in which I forewarned of what we are seeing. The interview is available to hear on the YouTube Channel for MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, starting at minute 20:46.
On this day in 1902, one of the most courageous scholars of the 20th Century was born. It was in autumn 1933 that Allison Davis and his wife Elizabeth made their way to Jim Crow Mississippi, embarking on a perilous study of the hierarchy of the South. They would have to learn to sublimate their upright bearing and submit to the social order, knowing that any slip up could cost them their lives. Davis was a black anthropologist who had degrees from Harvard and had lived abroad, but once in Natchez, he could not in any way act like it. The couple could not reveal the true nature of a mission that would render them undercover agents. Urbane and bespectacled though he was, Davis kept a gun in the car to protect himself and his wife if it came to it. They joined the other half of their team, a white couple, Burleigh and Mary Gardner. Led by Davis, the mission was a revolutionary experiment in interracial scholarship. Together, they infiltrated a closed and isolated southern town from opposite sides of the caste divide. Under constant surveillance, they had to meet in secret and keep to their caste roles at all times, with the Davises required to show deference to their white peers and never give the appearance that they were, in fact, colleagues in the trenches together. The Davises rented a room from a black doctor and connected with the town’s black leaders. To reach the working classes, Davis recruited another black researcher, St. Clair Drake, to embed with sharecroppers and domestics. Davis had to convince Drake to join them in the Jim Crow South. “You can’t really smash the system if you don’t understand how it works,” Davis said. They endured many setbacks before publishing their findings in 1941, but their landmark book, Deep South, nearly fell into obscurity. I remember the joy of securing a used copy years ago. I came to see Allison Davis as a spiritual father in the quest to understand caste in America and felt compelled to bring his story to a larger audience in Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. This blessedly sparked the long-overdue re-issue of Deep South. It was my honor to be asked to write the Foreword.
On this day in 1902, one of the most courageous scholars of the 20th Century was born. It was in autumn 1933 that Allison Davis and his wife Elizabeth made their way to Jim Crow Mississippi, embarking on a perilous study of the hierarchy of the South. They would have to learn to sublimate their upright bearing and submit to the social order, knowing that any slip up could cost them their lives. Davis was a black anthropologist who had degrees from Harvard and had lived abroad, but once in Natchez, he could not in any way act like it. The couple could not reveal the true nature of a mission that would render them undercover agents. Urbane and bespectacled though he was, Davis kept a gun in the car to protect himself and his wife if it came to it. They joined the other half of their team, a white couple, Burleigh and Mary Gardner. Led by Davis, the mission was a revolutionary experiment in interracial scholarship. Together, they infiltrated a closed and isolated southern town from opposite sides of the caste divide. Under constant surveillance, they had to meet in secret and keep to their caste roles at all times, with the Davises required to show deference to their white peers and never give the appearance that they were, in fact, colleagues in the trenches together. The Davises rented a room from a black doctor and connected with the town’s black leaders. To reach the working classes, Davis recruited another black researcher, St. Clair Drake, to embed with sharecroppers and domestics. Davis had to convince Drake to join them in the Jim Crow South. “You can’t really smash the system if you don’t understand how it works,” Davis said. They endured many setbacks before publishing their findings in 1941, but their landmark book, Deep South, nearly fell into obscurity. I remember the joy of securing a used copy years ago. I came to see Allison Davis as a spiritual father in the quest to understand caste in America and felt compelled to bring his story to a larger audience in Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. This blessedly sparked the long-overdue re-issue of Deep South. It was my honor to be asked to write the Foreword.
On this day in 1902, one of the most courageous scholars of the 20th Century was born. It was in autumn 1933 that Allison Davis and his wife Elizabeth made their way to Jim Crow Mississippi, embarking on a perilous study of the hierarchy of the South. They would have to learn to sublimate their upright bearing and submit to the social order, knowing that any slip up could cost them their lives. Davis was a black anthropologist who had degrees from Harvard and had lived abroad, but once in Natchez, he could not in any way act like it. The couple could not reveal the true nature of a mission that would render them undercover agents. Urbane and bespectacled though he was, Davis kept a gun in the car to protect himself and his wife if it came to it. They joined the other half of their team, a white couple, Burleigh and Mary Gardner. Led by Davis, the mission was a revolutionary experiment in interracial scholarship. Together, they infiltrated a closed and isolated southern town from opposite sides of the caste divide. Under constant surveillance, they had to meet in secret and keep to their caste roles at all times, with the Davises required to show deference to their white peers and never give the appearance that they were, in fact, colleagues in the trenches together. The Davises rented a room from a black doctor and connected with the town’s black leaders. To reach the working classes, Davis recruited another black researcher, St. Clair Drake, to embed with sharecroppers and domestics. Davis had to convince Drake to join them in the Jim Crow South. “You can’t really smash the system if you don’t understand how it works,” Davis said. They endured many setbacks before publishing their findings in 1941, but their landmark book, Deep South, nearly fell into obscurity. I remember the joy of securing a used copy years ago. I came to see Allison Davis as a spiritual father in the quest to understand caste in America and felt compelled to bring his story to a larger audience in Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. This blessedly sparked the long-overdue re-issue of Deep South. It was my honor to be asked to write the Foreword.
On this day in 1902, one of the most courageous scholars of the 20th Century was born. It was in autumn 1933 that Allison Davis and his wife Elizabeth made their way to Jim Crow Mississippi, embarking on a perilous study of the hierarchy of the South. They would have to learn to sublimate their upright bearing and submit to the social order, knowing that any slip up could cost them their lives. Davis was a black anthropologist who had degrees from Harvard and had lived abroad, but once in Natchez, he could not in any way act like it. The couple could not reveal the true nature of a mission that would render them undercover agents. Urbane and bespectacled though he was, Davis kept a gun in the car to protect himself and his wife if it came to it. They joined the other half of their team, a white couple, Burleigh and Mary Gardner. Led by Davis, the mission was a revolutionary experiment in interracial scholarship. Together, they infiltrated a closed and isolated southern town from opposite sides of the caste divide. Under constant surveillance, they had to meet in secret and keep to their caste roles at all times, with the Davises required to show deference to their white peers and never give the appearance that they were, in fact, colleagues in the trenches together. The Davises rented a room from a black doctor and connected with the town’s black leaders. To reach the working classes, Davis recruited another black researcher, St. Clair Drake, to embed with sharecroppers and domestics. Davis had to convince Drake to join them in the Jim Crow South. “You can’t really smash the system if you don’t understand how it works,” Davis said. They endured many setbacks before publishing their findings in 1941, but their landmark book, Deep South, nearly fell into obscurity. I remember the joy of securing a used copy years ago. I came to see Allison Davis as a spiritual father in the quest to understand caste in America and felt compelled to bring his story to a larger audience in Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. This blessedly sparked the long-overdue re-issue of Deep South. It was my honor to be asked to write the Foreword.
On this day in 1902, one of the most courageous scholars of the 20th Century was born. It was in autumn 1933 that Allison Davis and his wife Elizabeth made their way to Jim Crow Mississippi, embarking on a perilous study of the hierarchy of the South. They would have to learn to sublimate their upright bearing and submit to the social order, knowing that any slip up could cost them their lives. Davis was a black anthropologist who had degrees from Harvard and had lived abroad, but once in Natchez, he could not in any way act like it. The couple could not reveal the true nature of a mission that would render them undercover agents. Urbane and bespectacled though he was, Davis kept a gun in the car to protect himself and his wife if it came to it. They joined the other half of their team, a white couple, Burleigh and Mary Gardner. Led by Davis, the mission was a revolutionary experiment in interracial scholarship. Together, they infiltrated a closed and isolated southern town from opposite sides of the caste divide. Under constant surveillance, they had to meet in secret and keep to their caste roles at all times, with the Davises required to show deference to their white peers and never give the appearance that they were, in fact, colleagues in the trenches together. The Davises rented a room from a black doctor and connected with the town’s black leaders. To reach the working classes, Davis recruited another black researcher, St. Clair Drake, to embed with sharecroppers and domestics. Davis had to convince Drake to join them in the Jim Crow South. “You can’t really smash the system if you don’t understand how it works,” Davis said. They endured many setbacks before publishing their findings in 1941, but their landmark book, Deep South, nearly fell into obscurity. I remember the joy of securing a used copy years ago. I came to see Allison Davis as a spiritual father in the quest to understand caste in America and felt compelled to bring his story to a larger audience in Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. This blessedly sparked the long-overdue re-issue of Deep South. It was my honor to be asked to write the Foreword.
On this day in 1902, one of the most courageous scholars of the 20th Century was born. It was in autumn 1933 that Allison Davis and his wife Elizabeth made their way to Jim Crow Mississippi, embarking on a perilous study of the hierarchy of the South. They would have to learn to sublimate their upright bearing and submit to the social order, knowing that any slip up could cost them their lives. Davis was a black anthropologist who had degrees from Harvard and had lived abroad, but once in Natchez, he could not in any way act like it. The couple could not reveal the true nature of a mission that would render them undercover agents. Urbane and bespectacled though he was, Davis kept a gun in the car to protect himself and his wife if it came to it. They joined the other half of their team, a white couple, Burleigh and Mary Gardner. Led by Davis, the mission was a revolutionary experiment in interracial scholarship. Together, they infiltrated a closed and isolated southern town from opposite sides of the caste divide. Under constant surveillance, they had to meet in secret and keep to their caste roles at all times, with the Davises required to show deference to their white peers and never give the appearance that they were, in fact, colleagues in the trenches together. The Davises rented a room from a black doctor and connected with the town’s black leaders. To reach the working classes, Davis recruited another black researcher, St. Clair Drake, to embed with sharecroppers and domestics. Davis had to convince Drake to join them in the Jim Crow South. “You can’t really smash the system if you don’t understand how it works,” Davis said. They endured many setbacks before publishing their findings in 1941, but their landmark book, Deep South, nearly fell into obscurity. I remember the joy of securing a used copy years ago. I came to see Allison Davis as a spiritual father in the quest to understand caste in America and felt compelled to bring his story to a larger audience in Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. This blessedly sparked the long-overdue re-issue of Deep South. It was my honor to be asked to write the Foreword.
On this day in 1902, one of the most courageous scholars of the 20th Century was born. It was in autumn 1933 that Allison Davis and his wife Elizabeth made their way to Jim Crow Mississippi, embarking on a perilous study of the hierarchy of the South. They would have to learn to sublimate their upright bearing and submit to the social order, knowing that any slip up could cost them their lives. Davis was a black anthropologist who had degrees from Harvard and had lived abroad, but once in Natchez, he could not in any way act like it. The couple could not reveal the true nature of a mission that would render them undercover agents. Urbane and bespectacled though he was, Davis kept a gun in the car to protect himself and his wife if it came to it. They joined the other half of their team, a white couple, Burleigh and Mary Gardner. Led by Davis, the mission was a revolutionary experiment in interracial scholarship. Together, they infiltrated a closed and isolated southern town from opposite sides of the caste divide. Under constant surveillance, they had to meet in secret and keep to their caste roles at all times, with the Davises required to show deference to their white peers and never give the appearance that they were, in fact, colleagues in the trenches together. The Davises rented a room from a black doctor and connected with the town’s black leaders. To reach the working classes, Davis recruited another black researcher, St. Clair Drake, to embed with sharecroppers and domestics. Davis had to convince Drake to join them in the Jim Crow South. “You can’t really smash the system if you don’t understand how it works,” Davis said. They endured many setbacks before publishing their findings in 1941, but their landmark book, Deep South, nearly fell into obscurity. I remember the joy of securing a used copy years ago. I came to see Allison Davis as a spiritual father in the quest to understand caste in America and felt compelled to bring his story to a larger audience in Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. This blessedly sparked the long-overdue re-issue of Deep South. It was my honor to be asked to write the Foreword.
I hear it over and over again from readers of Caste that, once you see it, you can’t unsee it. So when The New York Times asked readers to nominate books that had helped them make sense of our political era, readers of Caste catapulted it to the Times’ list of the 12 Best Books About Politics, along with the seminal work of Robert Caro, Robert Penn Warren, Doris Kearns Goodwin and other acclaimed authors. Caste is an x-ray of our country. It answers the otherwise incomprehensible question asked time and again in recent years: “Why do some people ‘vote against their own interests?’ ” The answer, from the perspective of Caste, is they don’t. They are voting for the interests that matter most to them. Grateful to the readers who were so moved by Caste that they recommended it to this list. Grateful to those who have gifted this book to those they care about, making Caste the most gifted book in its category on Amazon. An honor to be counted among classic works by revered political writers and to know that readers are finding solace and greater understanding in the pages of Caste.
I hear it over and over again from readers of Caste that, once you see it, you can’t unsee it. So when The New York Times asked readers to nominate books that had helped them make sense of our political era, readers of Caste catapulted it to the Times’ list of the 12 Best Books About Politics, along with the seminal work of Robert Caro, Robert Penn Warren, Doris Kearns Goodwin and other acclaimed authors. Caste is an x-ray of our country. It answers the otherwise incomprehensible question asked time and again in recent years: “Why do some people ‘vote against their own interests?’ ” The answer, from the perspective of Caste, is they don’t. They are voting for the interests that matter most to them. Grateful to the readers who were so moved by Caste that they recommended it to this list. Grateful to those who have gifted this book to those they care about, making Caste the most gifted book in its category on Amazon. An honor to be counted among classic works by revered political writers and to know that readers are finding solace and greater understanding in the pages of Caste.
I hear it over and over again from readers of Caste that, once you see it, you can’t unsee it. So when The New York Times asked readers to nominate books that had helped them make sense of our political era, readers of Caste catapulted it to the Times’ list of the 12 Best Books About Politics, along with the seminal work of Robert Caro, Robert Penn Warren, Doris Kearns Goodwin and other acclaimed authors. Caste is an x-ray of our country. It answers the otherwise incomprehensible question asked time and again in recent years: “Why do some people ‘vote against their own interests?’ ” The answer, from the perspective of Caste, is they don’t. They are voting for the interests that matter most to them. Grateful to the readers who were so moved by Caste that they recommended it to this list. Grateful to those who have gifted this book to those they care about, making Caste the most gifted book in its category on Amazon. An honor to be counted among classic works by revered political writers and to know that readers are finding solace and greater understanding in the pages of Caste.
I hear it over and over again from readers of Caste that, once you see it, you can’t unsee it. So when The New York Times asked readers to nominate books that had helped them make sense of our political era, readers of Caste catapulted it to the Times’ list of the 12 Best Books About Politics, along with the seminal work of Robert Caro, Robert Penn Warren, Doris Kearns Goodwin and other acclaimed authors. Caste is an x-ray of our country. It answers the otherwise incomprehensible question asked time and again in recent years: “Why do some people ‘vote against their own interests?’ ” The answer, from the perspective of Caste, is they don’t. They are voting for the interests that matter most to them. Grateful to the readers who were so moved by Caste that they recommended it to this list. Grateful to those who have gifted this book to those they care about, making Caste the most gifted book in its category on Amazon. An honor to be counted among classic works by revered political writers and to know that readers are finding solace and greater understanding in the pages of Caste.
I hear it over and over again from readers of Caste that, once you see it, you can’t unsee it. So when The New York Times asked readers to nominate books that had helped them make sense of our political era, readers of Caste catapulted it to the Times’ list of the 12 Best Books About Politics, along with the seminal work of Robert Caro, Robert Penn Warren, Doris Kearns Goodwin and other acclaimed authors. Caste is an x-ray of our country. It answers the otherwise incomprehensible question asked time and again in recent years: “Why do some people ‘vote against their own interests?’ ” The answer, from the perspective of Caste, is they don’t. They are voting for the interests that matter most to them. Grateful to the readers who were so moved by Caste that they recommended it to this list. Grateful to those who have gifted this book to those they care about, making Caste the most gifted book in its category on Amazon. An honor to be counted among classic works by revered political writers and to know that readers are finding solace and greater understanding in the pages of Caste.
