Isabel Wilkerson — "We all know in our bones that things are harder than they have to be."

Nazi Connections

Isabel Wilkerson uncovers the unsettling admiration Hitler had for American racial policies, revealing a chilling connection between Nazi Germany and the United States. She explains how the eugenics movement in America influenced Nazi ideology, with American eugenicists' books becoming bestsellers in Germany and even serving as a bible for Hitler 1. This connection highlights the deep-rooted issues of caste and race in America, as Wilkerson notes, "Caste is the bones and race is the skin," emphasizing the underlying structures that perpetuate inequality 2.

   

Recorded Violence

The proliferation of recorded violence through modern technology has exposed society to unprecedented levels of brutality, reshaping our perceptions and responses. Isabel Wilkerson reflects on the impact of witnessing such violence, like the deaths of George Floyd and Tyree Nichols, which numbs us to the pain and humanity of others 3. She argues that this exposure reveals a failure of humanity, urging a deep examination of our connections with one another as members of the same species 4.