The United States of America

Wilkerson’s nonfiction text is an analytic look at the caste social structure in America, and thus most of the work’s anecdotes, data, and research take place in or are centered on America. Wilkerson acknowledges the current political turmoil in America and notes that it is nothing new, but rather the cumulative discontent of a 300-year-old caste system. The caste system was the foundation the country was founded on and still exists in modern time, although it may have different signifiers. In America, white people are the dominant caste, while black people, particularly black people who have lived in America for generations, are the lowest subordinate caste.

Jim Crow South

Wilkerson refers often to the Jim Crow regime in America, particularly in the south, which was America during the late 19th and the early 20th century, when intense segregation laws existed. The...