Social Stratification and Discrimination

Discrimination and prejudice are widely known in United States history. In the 1960's the civil rights movement demanded legislation and passed laws, which banned discrimination. Five decades later, it still continues in our society. Discrimination and prejudice occur when a group of people feel they are superior to another, and can be based on a person's color, race, national origin, religion, sex and gay couples.

The fundamental root of discrimination is prejudice. Prejudice starts with cognition and our thoughts towards another group which often leads to a generalization or stereotyping (Myers, 2014, pg.572). Stereotyping leads us to emotions directed towards a particular group or person; including fear, hatred, and hostility, fundamentally this is negative prejudice (Myers, 2014, pg.572). Myers (2014) states that if we believe our thoughts to be true, our emotions will lead to the actual act of discrimination. Taking action on prejudice is discrimination; it is the behaviours or actions directed towards a specific distinction of a group (Myers, 2014, ph.572). We do know that discrimination can take many forms, some acceptable and others purely inexcusable.

Looking at the article “Class Matters” by Peter Sacks, Social classes are divisions in society, which are based on social and economic status. People from a similar social class have a distinct level of power and wealth within a given community or country. The most common social groupings, based on status, are the upper, the middle, and the lower social classes. The precise considerations of determining these hierarchical social categories vary from time to time. Many researchers have come up with different perspectives as far as social stratification is concerned. According to Karl Marx, social stratification is a result of one's position in the hierarchy of factors of production. Therefore, social stratification is a manifestation of financial muscle within society further creating the divide within social groupings as seen through educational divides and inequalities that lie in many aspects of life.

The Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology defines inequality as ‘the unequal distribution of opportunities, rewards, and power among and between individuals, households and groups’(1). It goes on to say that ‘the subfield of social stratification has as its main task the description and analysis of inequalities, or the makeup of the stratification system of any given society’.(1) From this one definition, we can already begin to see the strong links that lie between inequalities and social stratification. As we delve deeper into the topics, we can begin to see both the inevitability and the functionality of stratification

The social stratification for the United States of America is stratified into social classes based on wealth, income, educational attainment, occupation, and social networks (Boundless). There are three basic social classes in the United States. You have the upper class, middle class, and the

Social stratification as defined by Brinkerhoff et al. is “an institutionalized pattern of inequality in which social statuses are ranked on the basis of their access to scarce resources” (Brinkerhoff et al. 152). By scarce resources, many people have to deal with poverty and having a lack of money to buy the things they need in their lives. Social class is defined as “a category of people who share roughly the same class, status, and power and who have a sense of identification with each other” (Brinkerhoff et al. 155). Your social class has to do with your socioeconomic status along with the power and connections you have. Social mobility on the other hand is “the process of changing one’s social class” (Brinkerhoff et al. 153).

Attitudes, actions or institutional practices that subordinate or marginalize anyone can be considered discrimination. Racism in particular has historical roots in beliefs in the superiority of one group over another, beliefs that were once used to justify discrimination against ‘inferior’ groups. Although such beliefs are now widely rejected, racial discrimination nevertheless continues to exist. Other forms of discrimination include sexism, ageism, homophobia, anti-Semitism and

Economic stratification is the different rankings in social class are separated in different economic ways. These differences can vary from clothing, cars, perfumes, cigarette brands, etc. There are many ways you can tell what a person stratification is just by the way they look or the things they have. Usually these ranking go from lower class to middle class then the upper class. Each of these classes have very different ways of living and what they do to maintain a certain status.

Discrimination has been around for centuries. According to Webster’s dictionary (2016), Discrimination is the practice of unfairly treating a person or group of people differently from other people or groups of people. Race, gender, age, and sexual orientation can all be reasons as to why individuals experiences discrimination, as well as a person’s national origin, weight, and religion. Discrimination has caused enormous suffering across history. In today’s society discrimination still exists, it is far less prevalent however it remains in certain areas, such as the labor market.

Social stratification implies the separation of a given populace into progressively superimposed classes. It is showed in the presence of upper and lower social layer. Its premise comprises in an unequal conveyance of rights and benefits, obligations and duties, social esteems, social power and impacts among the individuals from a general public. No general public is unstratified. Stratification includes the dissemination of unequal rights and benefits among the individuals from a general public. Social stratification is the division of society into lasting gatherings or classes connected with each other by the relationship of prevalence and subordination.

Social stratification is the ranking or a person or group according to the availability of resources. This occurs in many parts of the Minnewaska Area High School system. There is a definite ranking system at Minnewaska. It is due to the wealth, power, and prestige of the person.

Social stratification is defined as a system by which society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy. For example, There are fundamental principles of stratification:

We live in a society where almost all things are categorized: when we go to grocery stores, we find fruits labeled of different prices because of different origins; when we meet new people, we always find someone enjoys describing other people based on their star signs. While these categories usually do no harm to individuals or society, some categories—race, class, gender—are shaped into rankings and then generate discriminations and inequalities. One could blame on social media and entertainment for this process, but to understand the situation in order to change it, we first need tools that help us interpret how stratification and discrimination are planted in our mind and how we act along with them. Sociological theories can be useful tools, not only in offering a lens for us to clearly see through the formation and development of discriminations, but also in leading us to come up with solutions that target at the basics—how people think and behave. Some sociological theories will be talked about to analyze stratification and discrimination in this essay below.

Social Stratification is a term used by sociologists to describe inequalities that exist between society and us as individuals and can also be described as a hierarchy with the less privileged people at the bottom and the more favoured people at the top. (Giddens, 2006)

Social stratification can be simply defined by stating that it is a system in which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy (Macionis, page 224). The concept of social stratification is based on four central principles, which are social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences, it carries over from one generation to the next, while it is universal, it is also variable, and social stratification involves not only inequality but beliefs as well (Macionis, pages 224-225). The first principle, that social stratification is a trait of society, not simply a reflection of individual differences, basically says that children born into wealthy families are more likely to be of good health, do well in school, succeed in a career, and live a long life (Macionis, pages 224-225). An example of this first principle can be seen in the what happened to the Titanic. The first-class passengers survived not because they were better swimmers than the second- and third-class passengers, but because of their privileged position (Macionis, page 224-225). The second principle states that the concept of social stratification is one that carries over from one generation to the next (Macionis, page 225). This concept is essentially stating that the social standing of a person is partially determined by their parents. Most people’s social standing remains constant throughout their lives (Macionis, page 225). While social stratification is