UC Santa Barbara Arts & Lectures - Performance Details

How to Watch

"Wilkerson's work is the missing puzzle piece of our country's history." The American Prospect

Isabel Wilkerson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Humanities Medal, has become a leading figure in narrative nonfiction, an interpreter of the human condition and an impassioned voice for demonstrating how history can help us understand ourselves, our country and our current era of upheaval. Her debut work, The Warmth of Other Suns, won the National Book Critics Circle Award and many others. Her new book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions. Linking the caste systems of America, India and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations. Using riveting stories about people – including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball's Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself and many others – she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day.

This presentation will be followed by a Q&A with the audience.

Race to Justice Lead Sponsors: Marcy Carsey, Connie Frank & Evan Thompson, Patty & John MacFarlane, Sara Miller McCune, Santa Barbara Foundation, Lynda Weinman & Bruce Heavin, Dick Wolf, and Zegar Family Foundation

UC Santa Barbara Campus Partners:

Department of Black Studies, Center for Black Studies Research, Division of Social Sciences, Division of Humanities and Fine Arts, Division of Mathematical, Life, and Physical Sciences, Division of Student Affairs, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, Graduate Division, Bren School for Environmental Science & Management, College of Creative Studies, College of Engineering, MultiCultural Center, Carsey-Wolf Center, UCSB Library | UCSB Reads, Office of the Chancellor, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor   

 

Community Partners: Natalie Orfalea Foundation & Lou Buglioli 

Special Thanks: