Prof. Appiah writes a NYTimes review of Isabel Wilkerson's new book: “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” I'll read the book because the concept is interesting, but I was struck in the review by this:
The place of Black workers in the American economy is surely part of the racial story, and it’s notable that the word “capitalism” doesn’t appear in Wilkerson’s book. Low-status jobs are generally low-income jobs; both income and status matter. Nor can we turn to the caste model in explaining the centrality of Black people to American popular culture.
I'm working on a post on the differences in American society between 1950's of my youth and the 2020's of my old age, but I hadn't yet touched on that.
It's true--I could probably count on both hands the number of blacks in the culture who seemed significant to me:
Jackie Robinson
James Baldwin
Nat King Cole
Thurgood Marshall
By the end of the decade MLKing but not Malcolm X.
Sidney Poitier
no singers that I remember.
I expect an 18 year old me in today's world would have a much longer list of singers, actors, writers. etc.
Part of the difference between then and now is blacks coming to the fore. But it's also true that part of the difference is the decline of hierarchy/or the multiplication of niches.
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