Chrisean Rose Isabel Wilkersonâs recent work may have transformed her from a successful journalist and non-fiction author into a global superstar, but she also sees herself as something of a building inspector. âWe in the Western world are like people who inherited an old house,â she tells me when we meet to talk about Caste: The Lies That Divide Us, which, since its publication last summer, has become a phenomenon, discussed passionately on campuses and at dinner parties around the globe, while garnering a host of famous fans. âWe did not build the uneven pillars and joists and beams, but we have inherited it. Whatever is wrong with it, is up to us now.â