Clamoring for Caste

“Why does anyone ever need to know where I went to school at age 53?”

In December 2025, I came across this question posed by Dr. Theresa McPhail while scrolling through Threads. It gave me a chuckle—but I read on:

“And yet, it comes up all the time, in exactly this way. As a test. P.S. All the PhDs from Berkeley, Harvard, Yale, etc., are all teaching at the “no name” schools because it is nearly impossible to get a job as a professor anywhere. So, essentially, you’re now just clamoring for caste, and all the benefits of being in the higher caste, because the education is largely the same no matter where you end up.”¹

I chuckled because she’s right—the question is absurd—but also because it’s uncomfortable. We can be partially disabled by things over which we had no real control. We in America don’t have legally defined castes – that’s pre-1947 India. Instead, there are other markers that serve to place someone into an assigned stratum in the larger community. And these “tells” are portable, across communities, cultures, and continents.

As recently as 2020, Isabel Wilkerson, in her book titled Caste, ² wrote about America’s functional caste system with respect to race and the structure by which it is enforced. But what if race isn’t the only label that stratifies us? What if our status is much more stubbornly intrinsic?

A stranger asks:

Where were you born?
Who are your parents?
What church did you attend?
What are your politics?
Where do you live?
How old are you?
Are you married?
Do you have kids?

How comfortable are you with answering these questions knowing that any answer which deviates from some ill-defined “norm” in the questioner’s mind can immediately cause you to lose standing. It is a metaphorical injury—as though you’ve lost a finger, a hand, a limb—in the higher caste’s assessment of your utility.

These questions are not just used in academia, social encounters, dating, or job interviews (though they may be wearing a cunning disguise), but also include investigations into each other’s caste. From the top echelons of business and government to the regulars in a small-town bar, the attention, affection, and assistance is meted out based on our answers. We are often sorted before we are seen.

That chuckle back in December sparked my deep dive into social, psychological, neurological, and biological reasons for humanity’s indelible need for place and hierarchy even while we strive to rise. I look forward to this discussion and hope you’ll join me.

A Well Seasoned Story