QSI Special: Isabel Wilkerson Interview "Caste: The Origins of our Discontent"

"Almost three decades ago, when she was a national correspondent for this newspaper, Isabel Wilkerson set out to write a piece about Chicago’s “Magnificent Mile,” an upscale commercial stretch where some New York retailers were planning to open branches. When the last of her interview subjects arrived at his showroom, where she was waiting patiently, she tried to introduce herself. But the man, looking harried, brushed past her. He didn’t have time to talk, he said. He was running late for an important appointment with a New York Times reporter. After Wilkerson explained that she was the reporter in question, the man asked her to produce identification, and even then he turned her away, doubtful that the Black woman in front of him could be the Times reporter of that name. Recalling the incident in “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,” Wilkerson writes mordantly, “This was the first time I had ever been accused of impersonating myself.”  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/books/review/caste-isabel-wilkerson.html