“Caste: : a division of society based on differences of wealth, inherited rank or privilege, profession, occupation, or race” (Miriam-Webster)
“Hierarchy: A group of persons or things organized into successive ranks or grades with each level subordinate to the one above. (The American Heritage Dictionary)
When we talk about caste systems, most people think of India with its divisions of society into four major levels: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras. Below these four acknowledged castes is another non-caste called the Untouchables, or the Dalits, who are the lowest of the low and whose shadow passing over a Brahmin makes the Brahmin ritually unclean. Dalits are required to do the most disgusting jobs, such as cleaning latrines. They are kept from higher education and skilled vocations because of their ranking in the caste hierarchy.
New York Times journalist Isabel Wilkerson in her excellent book: Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, compares and contrasts the Indian caste system. She also provides evidence that Nazi Germany with its treatment of the Jews from 1933 to 1945, created a caste system, based both on the Indian caste system and the American caste model.
Yet, even the Nazi’s couldn’t accept the “one drop rule”, where to American southerners, even one drop of black blood meant a person was black. That was too extreme even for them.
America has had a caste system since before it became a nation, beginning in 1619, when the first African slaves were brought to this nation. Caste attitudes have permeated American society and have been responsible for some of the worst human rights atrocities in world history; “the peculiar institution” of Antebellum southern slavery, the Civil War, Jim Crow laws from 1896 to 1950s and 1960s, and the current caste manifestations that have arisen because white dominance comes to an end in the year 2042.
In that year American whites will become a minority. The political and social divisions that are dividing and polarizing the nation today have their roots in this historical demographic with its caste implications: “If people were given the choice between democracy and whiteness, how many would choose whiteness”?
“What most distinguishes white American evangelicals from other Christians, other religious groups, and nonbelievers is not theology but politics”. The politics of caste.
The question that many on the left have had after the 2016 and 2024 elections was, ”Why, oh, why, were these people voting against their own interests?” The answer, according to Wilkerson, is that “maintaining the caste system as it had always been was in their interest. And some were willing to accept short-term discomfort, forgo health insurance, risk contamination of the water and air and even die to protect their long-term interest in the hierarchy as they had known it”.
Why would women not vote for a woman president, especially in the light of discrimination, oppression, abuse, and rape?
“There was perhaps no clearer measure of white solidarity than the actions of white women in 2016 [and 2024]. The majority of them—53 percent—the white side of their identities…. have enjoyed [the benefits] because of their race…. Their group’s advantages, and their status atop the racial hierarchy are all in jeopardy”.
Democrats who are now licking their wounds, and looking around for reasons, strategies, and people to explain why they lost in both 2016 and 2024, do not understand the deeper effects of the American caste system upon voting decisions.
Joe Biden won in 2020 because he was a white male, part of the dominant caste. Kamala Harris lost in 2024 because she was not only a woman, but also biracial, both black and Indian. It was too much of a deviation from the history and culture of the American caste system. Running a skillful campaign and winning a national debate were not important enough in the light of caste history.
What matters in America is caste domination of power that has existed since 1619. 2042 is looming in the not-too-distant future which frightens many white Americans. Most Americans are not aware of the effects of caste on their psyches, attitudes, and voting decisions.
In the words of Albert Einstein, “If the majority knew of the root of this evil, then the road to its cure would not be long.” Education makes visible to us what is hidden in plain view. The American caste system is the driving force in American politics and history.
Richard Elfers is a columnist, a former Enumclaw City Council member and a Green River College professor.
