Chicago House Conversation Series and Book Club Explores Race, Caste

The Chicago House virtual book club has fueled discussion and fostered community among friends of the organization since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Co-hosted by Chicago House trustees Nabeela Rasheed and Kelly Saulsberry, featuring a wide array of guest speakers, and anchored by books that connect to Chicago House’s work and mission, this ongoing conversation series provides a unique way to engage virtually.

For the latest iteration of its virtual conversation series and book club, Chicago House selected Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson’s latest book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, to guide weekly discussions. Caste dissects the long legacy of caste-based hierarchies in American society, namely the calculated and systemic treatment of Black Americans as second-class citizens.

Special guests over the course of this series included Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, Windy City Media Group co-founder and Chicago Reader publisher Tracy Baim, Movement Voter Project Senior Philanthropic Advisor Zakiya Johnson Lord, and National Center for Lesbian Rights Executive Director Imani Rupert-Gordon. The series concluded with an exclusive conversation with Illinois Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton and State Senator Mike Simmons.

Wilkerson’s book provided an insightful jumping-off point for book club participants to discuss racism in the United States, the January 6th insurrection at the US Capitol, and their own personal journeys with learning and unlearning insidious racial biases, among many other topics.

"The strength in caste is that it's invisible—we don't see it, but we know it's there,” remarked Rupert-Gordon. “We're in a moment where we've shed light on something that is usually pretty invisible to us."

"There is nothing enlightened about a caste system and how we treat and dehumanize people of color in the United States," Comptroller Mendoza asserted in the first discussion of the series. “The opportunities we enjoy today are not available to everyone, and that is by design."

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