Elizabeth Wilkerson wrote the book, Caste
Of all of the volumes I’ve read in the past
This one tops the list in importance, I feel
I learned many things unaware they were real
The author, a black, taught how caste permeates
Our essence of being, our innermost state
It thrives on adversity upper o’er lower
No matter achievements, we’re better than they are
The book windows slavery, for four hundred years
Inhuman brutalities, lives lived in fear
Though Lincoln had freed them; our costliest war,
The South re-enslaved them, worse off than before
Where lynching a nigger was great entertainment
Large crowds would all gather to watch his denouement
And lynch-picture postcards were made there and then
And sold to the crowd to recall what they’d seen
The book compares caste systems, Indian with ours
And Arians o’er Jews as the Nazis gained power
They have much in common, one must feel superior
Above those less human, innately inferior
Perhaps the most relevant to the now, here
Is caste’s role in politics throughout the years
Republican whites know that they’re upper caste
All others beneath them with blacks being last
But in twenty-forty-two whites then will be
In the minority; that’s bad, you see!
Must outlaw abortions; make black births decrease
And limit their access to vote as they please
White caste’s been in power for nearly four centuries
Keeping that power trumps even democracy
Attitudes held by most right-wing Republicans
Fraudulence claimed, never ceding elections
Wilkerson’s book is like one in a million
Her writing, her insights are not short of brilliant
I thank her sincerely for all she has done
Revealing caste’s shadows within everyone
2/23/2023
