“Caste and Race: Interconnected, yet Distinct, Systems of Oppression”
Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023, noon
Presenters: Dr. Jeremy Rinker, UNCG Peace and Conflict Studies and Dr. Gaurav Pathania, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Peacebuilding in the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) at Eastern Mennonite University
Zoom: Register here: http://go.uncg.edu/historicalroots
Increasingly caste and race are again being discussed in tandem in the public sphere. This can be partly attributed to Pulitzer Prize winning author, Isabel Wilkerson’s recent book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (2020), in which the author invokes Allison Davis’ famous study Deep South: A Social Anthropological Study of Race and Class (1947) and Caste and Class in a Southern Town (1937) by John Dollard to help us rethink the role that race and Jim Crow has played in American history. But are caste and race the same? How do they differ as systems of oppression? This discussion with two scholars that focus on modern caste activism will explore what draws the comparisons to two related, yet distinct systems of oppression. Does describing the American racial system as a “racial caste system” (see Wilkerson, 2020; Alexander, 2010) assist or dilute the meaning of the globalized terminology of caste? Join us for an exciting discussion of these ideas as part of the historical roots of our time.