Caste Book Study Update

As some of you may be aware, one of the projects of the Race + Equity team this year has been to take part in a special inter-church book club on Caste. Here is a reflection from Maggie Dolbow now that the book club has ended. And let’s take a moment to remember that while February is called Black History month… it’s all our history and worthy of remembering all year long.

“I am thankful for a safe space where I can say the things I had to say in a space where it was received and processed not from a point of view of pity, but in a way that made people aware of what happens in the lives of black and brown people every day.”

This comment is from a member of the book study group on Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson. The Mount Level Community Partnership for Racial Justice organized and planned this book study for communities of Christian believers. At its outset in September 2021 more than 60 people joined, including five members of Pilgrim’s Race and Equity team. There was an organized 90 minute Zoom meeting every week for 8 weeks. Meetings included prayers and brief opening presentations on various aspects of the history of slavery, Jim Crow and 400 years of racism in the American experience.

Learning and Unlearning

Participants were divided into mostly permanent groups of both Black and White participants. There were focusing questions to help facilitate discussion around the assigned weekly chapters. Each group kept notes and at the end of the session reported on the highlights of their discussions. After the first few sessions, members of each group became knowledgeable about each other, and the incidents of discernment among the privileged majority became noticeable. The “real work” of the study began.

Wilkerson guides the reader through her own 8 year research on how the institution of racism is similar to the caste system of India and the Holocaust. She points out over and over again the ways Americans fall into the habits of racism, having been born into an accepted manner of behaving and thinking and assuming. We discussed her observations and narratives, many of them relating cruelties that seemed almost impossible to absorb—the obviously callous, criminal and irresponsible actions of the White race—commanding the attention of all of us. And members of our groups, whom we had begun to love and respect, pointed out how these crimes continue to this day. Self examination and self discovery was obvious among us.

“Comparisons of India, Nazi Germany, and the U.S. allowed readers to understand the US more clearly. We learned about the Indian caste system and Nazi German atrocities in school, but rarely have been able to map so closely to American racism.” (Post Caste Study comment) We began to realize how privileged white Americans benefited from the economic, social, and bodily abuse of our brothers. We began to unlearn myths and stereotypes about others that misinform our beliefs and are the foundations for our deepest fears and reactions.

If Pilgrims would like to know more about this study or to speak into our projects, the Race and Equity team meets at 5 P.M. on the third Wednesday of each month. (Zoom link in Pilgrim’s Progress). We are hoping to participate in more efforts by the Mt. Level Community Partnership and we will share what those are, as well as the times, with all of you through this newsletter. There are several new initiatives that we are considering as spinoffs of this study that might interest other Pilgrims.

Best,
Maggie Dolbow (on behalf of Race + Equity)