What America Can Learn From India and Nazi Germany: Startling Lessons from Wilkerson’s Caste

Cross-Continental Connections That Will Change How You See Social Division

When we think of social hierarchy, we often imagine it as a uniquely American problem, rooted in the country’s history of slavery and segregation. But Isabel Wilkerson’s 'Caste' shatters this illusion, revealing that the architecture of division is both ancient and universal. By comparing the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson shows how societies separated by oceans and centuries have arrived at eerily similar methods of ranking and controlling their people.

In India, caste is marked by last names, occupations, and village of origin, reinforced by centuries-old texts and rituals. In Nazi Germany, the dividing line was religious ancestry, with meticulously crafted laws separating Jews from Aryans. And in America, skin color became the passport to privilege or the sentence to struggle. What’s most shocking is how these systems have influenced each other: Nazi legal scholars studied American segregation laws, finding both inspiration and, at times, a model more extreme than their own. Meanwhile, oppressed groups found solidarity across continents, as seen when India’s Dalit Panthers drew inspiration from the Black Panther Party’s fight for justice in the U.S. 1 3



Wilkerson’s narrative is filled with examples that bring these connections to life. She recounts how anti-miscegenation laws in America were mirrored in Nazi Germany’s Nuremberg Laws, and how rituals of purity and pollution in India find echoes in the segregation of water fountains and restrooms in the American South. But the book also highlights the unique ways resistance has emerged: from the quiet acts of dignity in Indian villages to the mass protests of the civil rights era, and the global exchange of ideas between leaders and movements.

The key lesson is that caste is not about skin color or religion per se, but about the human impulse to create hierarchy—and the possibility of overcoming it. By learning from other societies’ failures and successes, Wilkerson suggests, America can find new strategies for healing and justice. Her comparative approach invites readers to look beyond national borders and see themselves as part of a global struggle for dignity and equality. 2 4