In an attempt to push back against GOP history curriculum policies, CBS’s Stephen Colbert welcomed Pulitzer Prize winning author Isabel Wilkerson onto the Thursday edition of The Late Show while naturally covering up the fact that Wilkerson’s version of history compares the founding to Nazi Germany while asking her to give the GOP advice on the matter.
Wilkerson was also on to promote the paperback release of her book Caste: The Origins of our Discontents, which Colbert hyped, “The New York Times review called it ‘The keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far.’ For those who don't know, explain the concept of caste and how you perceive that within our own cultural context.”
In the book, Wilkerson writes that, “Throughout human history, three caste systems have stood out. The lingering, millenniums-long caste system of India. The tragically accelerated, chilling and officially vanquished caste system of Nazi Germany. And the shape-shifting, unspoken, race-based caste pyramid in the United States.”
On Thursday, the Nazi analogy was curiously missing as Wilkerson explained to Colbert, “caste is essentially an arbitrary, artificial, graded ranking of human value in a society—in any society-- and we often think of that word applied to India, you know, the most recognizable caste system in the world and yet, it turned out that our Founding Fathers actually replicated or created a parallel kind of hierarchy.”
Before anybody could ask if Wilkerson has actually read the Founding documents or what the Founders had to say, she continued, “in our country what the colonists chose to use was the metric of what people look like, meaning race, so race was the tool that was used to divide and to rank people, to determine who would be slave or free who could own property or who could be property and we still live with the after effects of that.”
It should be easy to understand why Republicans do not want American history curriculum dominated by outrageous and obviously false reductio ad Hitlerums, but later in the interview Colbert still presented the GOP as the problem, “There’s an attack on teaching some of our history right now especially on some of the far-right, but those people are also leading presidential contenders at the same time. What do you say, what would you want to say to those who are looking to throttle or control the access to information about certain aspects of our history?”
Wilkerson responded by comparing the history of racism to an old house, “I mean, you don't want to go into the basement after a flood, a rain but if you don't go into the basement, it's at your own peril. Whatever is lurking in the basement will be there to taunt you no matter, you know, whether it or not. Ignorance is no protection against the consequences of inaction. Not knowing is not protecting yourself.”
It is very possible to teach children about the history of racism without comparing the Founding Fathers to Hitler and Colbert did his audience a grave disservice by not highlighting Wilkerson’s own words.
This segment was sponsored by Ford.
Here is a transcript for the February 23-taped show:
CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
2/24/2023
12:22 AM ET
STEPHEN COLBERT: As I said, the new book is Caste: The Origins of our Discontents. It came out two years ago but it's now out in paperback. The New York Times review called it "The keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far." For those who don't know, explain the concept of caste and how you perceive that within our own cultural context.
ISABEL WILKERSON: Well, first of all, caste is essentially an arbitrary, artificial, graded ranking of human value in a society—in any society-- and we often think of that word applied to India, you know, the most recognizable caste system in the world and yet, it turned out that our Founding Fathers actually replicated or created a parallel kind of hierarchy.
But what they did-- you could use any number of metrics to create a caste system. You can use religion. You can use ethnicity. You could use immigrant status, language, all of that, but in our country what the colonists chose to use was the metric of what people look like, meaning race, so race was the tool that was used to divide and to rank people, to determine who would be slave or free who could own property or who could be property and we still live with the after effects of that.
…
COLBERT: There’s an attack on teaching some of our history right now especially on some of the far-right, but those people are also leading presidential contenders at the same time. What do you say, what would you want to say to those who are looking to throttle or control the access to information about certain aspects of our history?
WILKERSON: Well, let me get back to, first, the old house. I mean, you don't want to go into the basement after a flood, a rain but if you don't go into the basement, it's at your own peril. Whatever is lurking in the basement will be there to taunt you no matter, you know, whether it or not. Ignorance is no protection against the consequences of inaction. Not knowing is not protecting yourself.
