Caste Dom Sub — Enrich Chicago

Carol Brantley, Joan Buccigrossi, Delyte Frost, Charles Pfeffer, and Marcus Robinson

The myth of American culture suggests that we, as individuals, define our own freedom and success. This myth assumes that all achievement is attained or lost by virtue of our potential and individual limitations. This notion plays out in our lives as “I can be whatever I want to be; my success or failure is realized according to my own mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical abilities and the application of my will to achieve.” As Americans (America, and American, signifies the United States of America and its citizens), we are brought up to believe that freedom and equality exist for all people. We cling to the idea that wealth has no legitimate claim to privilege, and that race cannot limit an individual’s potential in the eyes of the law.

We are raised to believe that the only thing that differentiates us is our individual, natural ability. That is to say that Jane or John Doe may be better at a particular thing than I am and therefore, should reap the benefits of that natural advantage. On some other measure, I hold the advantage and therefore should reap the rewards. In this way, it is an American cultural belief that all success is predicated on individual action alone. Those willing to fully apply their potential can reap the rewards according to their natural ability and individual advantages.

This is the American myth. It is a myth because the promise of America, freedom, and equality for all, is not fully realized for every American. The reality is that there are significant forces, which are often invisible, that shape our choices, experiences, and opportunities in ways that affect our potential. These forces play out in our lives at various levels of the human experience. The ultimate impact of these forces is on us as individuals, but the true power is wielded at the level of groups and societal institutions. These social influences shape our identity at various levels and provide a range of privileges and reinforcements (positive and negative) to maintain a particular balance of power, privilege, and influence in our society.

The Nature and Power of Group Membership

An individual’s identity is not strictly limited to his or her attributes. Each of us has membership in a variety of groups by virtue of birth and choice. For example:

You and I, as individuals, have narratives or life stories that describe the full collection of experiences, attributes, backgrounds, names, and other information about ourselves in relationship to the various groups to which we belong by virtue of birthright or choice and distinguish us from all others—it is who you say you are. This is called individual identity.
We also have narratives that describe the full collection of our experiences, attributes, backgrounds, names, and other information about us that distinguish the groups to which we belong by virtue of birthright or choice, from all others – it is who we say we are and how others see us as a member of a group or groups in the social context. This is called group membership or social identity.
Groups come together as collectives to create communities, organizations, and societal institutions. Even at this level, we have narratives that describe the full scope of our collective group experiences, attributes, backgrounds, names, and other information that distinguishes our collective group identity from all others. It is what the larger “We” say about ourselves and project in all areas of our collective control and influence. This level of identity is also shaped by how others see us in the greater social context. This is called institutional identity (also called societal level or organizational level identity).

All three levels of identity are fully engaged in our daily experiences to varying degrees. These multiple identities shape our worldview, which defines our choice and selection of a variety of life experiences and opportunities. Since only individual membership is under our direct control, the dynamics of group membership and institutional action exert enormous pressure on individuals in our society. The impact of these forces may vary based on group membership and individual identity.

Learning about group membership is a useful tool for understanding the visible and invisible forces that shape our lives at home, at work, and in the community at large. Understanding individual experience in the context of group-level patterns of behavior provides us with a powerful tool for creating greater vitality in every aspect of our lives.

Multiple Group Memberships

We are all individuals, who are also members of multiple groups. We belong to some groups by virtue of our birth. Examples of these memberships include race, gender, national and/or geographic origin, skin color, sexual orientation, and style. We also have membership in groups based on individual choice and prerogative. Examples of these groupings include marital status, parental status, education level, religion, and career. It is helpful to sort these various groupings into Core Membership and Preferred Membership.

Core Memberships

Preferred Membership

While there are many possibilities for preferred group membership, the core memberships tend to play the largest role in shaping our experiences at home, at work, and in the Community.

Ranking and Dominant – Subordinated Group Power Analysis

In the U.S., the dominant group derives and retains its power with a ranked hierarchy of people reserving the higher/highest rank for themselves while strictly limiting the power, agency, influence, and privilege (subordination) of other peoples by the power of God, and force of law, administrative rule, policy, custom, and norm. Caste is the forced ranking of groups of people from the highest (High Caste) to the lower ranks of Low Caste and Out Caste. Webster’s Dictionary defines the word caste as “a system of rigid social stratification characterized by hereditary status, endogamy, and social barriers sanctioned by custom, law, or religion.” I interpret the word “stratification” to mean a ranked hierarchy. Borrowing heavily from the monarchies of Europe, the Catholic Church, and the Indian custom of Caste, 16th Century colonists of the New World sought to create a forever-social system in which they forcefully retain High Caste and provide a working class of slaves and indentured servants to drive their burgeoning international trade of Cotton, Sugar, and Tobacco.

The fundamental beliefs that undergird the American Caste, as well as those adopted by 20th Century Germans and South Africans, are as follows.

Belief that God ordains the CASTE system
Belief that CASTE is handed down genetically
Belief that Dominant Group controls mating
Belief that Dominant Group must be protected
Belief that Low Cast must perform hard jobs
Belief that Low Caste and Outcast people are inhuman; to be hated
Belief that terror, torture, and lethality are permissible to manage subordinated people
Belief that God made High Caste above all others
Caste: The Scaffolding and Structure of Oppression

Addressing the Tensions Between Dominant and Subordinated Groups

There are potentially serious and costly tensions between dominant and subordinated groups. The systematic hoarding of power, privilege, and influence at the expense of others requires a great deal of force by dominant groups. The negative impact of this dynamic has been chronicled in the history of nearly all human societies. This negative impact can be summed up as the oppression of people based on group membership. The impact of this oppression is now beginning to be understood in terms of the real costs to businesses, organizations, communities, and the individuals that populate them. There is much work to be done by dominant and subordinated group members to address these tensions.

For dominant and subordinated group members, this work entails becoming:

Educated on the issues facing dominate and subordinated groups in the community and inside organizations
Aware of the impact of bias on subordinated groups
Aware of group-level expressions and behaviors in one’s own way of being
Able to track the patterns of group membership among dominant group members
Able to track the patterns of group membership among subordinated group
Members
Capable of working with dominant group members to create new and more vital
ways to remove arbitrary and capricious barriers that negatively impact
subordinated groups
Capable of partnering with subordinated group members toward their full empowerment without disadvantaging dominant group members
Address the personal and professional development required to make progress across the Continuum of Responses to Oppression

Caste: Understanding the Power Dynamics of

Dominant and Subordinated Groups

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