Mission
While the Well-Read Black Girl Book Club is focused on empowering Black women writers, we encourage readers who identify as genderqueer, non-binary, or others who feel inspired by what we’re doing to join us and be a part of our community.
The goal of #WRBGBookClub is simple yet profound: “Our mission is to support diverse voices and emerging writers of color, one book club meeting at a time. Our literary community is inclusive, we strive to inspire connections between bookstores, readers, and authors”- #wellreadblackgirl
Click on cover to order online!
Caste: The origins of our discontents
by Isabel Wilkerson
Oprah’s Book Club Pick! The Pulitzer Prize-winning, bestselling author of The Warmth Of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.
“As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power—which groups have it and which do not.”
In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.
Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people—including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others—she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.
at 6:30pm
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MeetMontgomery :
As a proud book nerd, I am ecstatic that Second Star to the Right Books has the first Well Read Black Girl chapter in Colorado. At university, I decided to further my love of reading by majoring in children's literature, with a focus on diversity (or lack thereof) in what is being published. We are doing better, but have a long way to go. My belief in life is every that child (and adult) is capable of not only reading a book, but being a reader. We all just need that one book that speaks to us. That's why I think Well Read Black Girl is so important, we can read books that accurately reflect parts of our lives with people who share similar backgrounds, while also reveling in our differences. I also love reading and learning about other marginalized groups and reflecting on how to be a better overall ally. I'm so honored to lead this group and can't wait to sneak a few young adult and middle grades in to our selections while we are it!
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