Social Stratification in the African American community has changed over the years. Social stratification is defined as a rigid subdivision of a society into a hierarchy of layers, differentiated on the basis of power, prestige, and wealth according to Webster’s dictionary. David Newman in Sociology Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life describes stratification as a ranking system for groups of people that perpetuates unequal rewards and life chances in society. From slavery to the present, the African American community has been seen to have lower status compared to white people. Today, the stratification or hierarchy difference between whites and black are not really noticeable, but it is still present. However, during slavery, the difference in social stratification was noticeable. Whites dominated over the blacks and mulattoes (offspring of a white and black parent). The mulattoes were seen to have a higher stratification than an offspring of black ancestry. Because the mulattoes were related to the whites, they were able to obtain higher education and better occupations than blacks. For example, most slaves of a lighter skin tone worked in the houses and darker slaves worked in the fields. As the people of light skin tone had children, they were able to have advantages too. The advantages have led into the society of today. In this paper I will discuss how stratification has been affected in the African American community over time by skin tone to make mulattoes more privileged than dark skin blacks. Over the years, research shows that lighter African American have had a higher level of attainment, shaping there social and economic stratification. Many blacks of lighter skin tone have had an advantage... ... middle of paper ... ...e. The dividing of levels between blacks influence their social and economic status in the black community, overall allowing the light-skinned blacks to have an advantage over the darker blacks. These advantages by light-skinned blacks have been protested over time by darker blacks through many movements, such as black nationalism and civil rights movements. Even though there was a big separation between blacks and mulattoes, this separation started to disappear during the 1960s. There is some stratification between blacks still today. Research shows that there is stratification among blacks in cities around America. The stratification creates advantages for lighter blacks allowing them to obtain better jobs than the dark blacks achieve. So, in the end, skin tone does have a factor that is related to stratification affecting the African American community.
Are African Americans perpetuating their own stereotypes about their culture? Possibly. African Americans are inherently less wealthy compared to whites and is an important fact to consider about the Black culture. Wealth is an...
As the United States developed and grew, upward mobility was central to the American dream. It was the unstated promise that no matter where you started, you had the chance to grow and proceed beyond your initial starting point. In the years following the Civil War, the promise began to fade. People of all races strived to gain the representation, acknowledgement and place in this society. To their great devastation, this hope quickly dwindled. Social rules were set out by the white folk, and nobody could rise above their social standing unless they were seen fit to be part of the white race. The social group to be impacted the most by this “social rule” was the African Americans. Black folk and those who were sympathetic to the idea of equal rights to blacks were targeted by the Ku Klux Klan. (Burton, 1998) The turning point in North Carolina politics was the Wilmington Race Riot of 1898. It was a very bold and outrageous statement from the white supremacists to the black folk. The Democratic white supremacists illegally seized power from the local government and destroyed the neighborhood by driving out the African Americans and turning it from a black-majority to a white-majority city. (Class Discussion 10/3/13) This event developed the idea that even though an African American could climb a ladder to becoming somebody in his or her city, he or she will never become completely autonomous in this nation. Charles W. Chesnutt discusses the issue of social mobility in his novel The Marrow of Tradition. Olivia Carteret, the wife of a white supremacist is also a half-sister to a Creole woman, Janet Miller. As the plot develops, we are able to see how the social standing of each woman impacts her everyday life, and how each woman is ...
Inequality became instrumental in privileging white society early in the creation of American society. The white society disadvantaged American Indian by taking their land and established a system of rights fixed in the principle that equality in society depended on the inequality of the Indians. This means that for white society to become privileged they must deprive the American Indians of what was theirs to begin with. Different institutions such as the social institution, political, economical, and education have all been affected by race. Sociologists use Assimilation theory to examine race and institutions. The perceived deficiencies of minority immigrant groups by white society has resulted in a generalized characterization of these different racial groups that is demeaning and reinforces the negative stereotypes towards minorities in the United States. Knowles and Prewitt argue that the cause behind the racial tension is the historical roots of institutional racism, which has prevented the minority from attaining equality. Following structured social inequality in the United States, institutions have consistently denied the minority groups through discrimination in education, employment, health care and medicine, and politics. Some ways that this has been done is the use of Jim Crow Laws. These laws created inequality in the educational institution by conducting the black schools and whited schools separately; whites used different textbooks than blacks and they could not be interchanged, and promoting equality for the races was considered a misdemeanor offense resulting in fines or prison. Because of these institutions, we see that there is an American Ethnic Hierarchy. This is divided into a three tier system: first ...
Prior to World War I there was much social, economic, and political inequality for African Americans. This made it difficult for African Americans to accept their own ethnicity and integrate with the rest of American society. By the end of World War II however African Americans had made great strides towards reaching complete equality, developing their culture, securing basic rights, and incorporating into American society.
Stratification systems, categorized people by class, gender, ethnicity, wealth/income. When people are categorized, start looking at different systems within the social system or social mobility. “The four main systems of stratification have been slavery, caste, estate, and class. Each of these systems allows greater or less flexibility in terms of social mobility. Social mobility is the ability to move up or down within a social stratification hierarchy” (Larkin, 2015). Slavery is a social status began with social norms allowing people to own others. The slaves had no wealth or power while under this social status. Caste systems are all aspects of social status are assigned at births and held forever,
“The racial hierarchy positions whites at the top, blacks at the bottom (as the “fixed star”) and other racial groups in between” (Module 3, Differences in Experiences of U.S. Minority Groups). When Europeans encountered the people of other lands, they collected information about what they were seeing and experiencing. This became the basis for constructing a racial hierarchy. In Orlando Sentinel Series, the racial hierarchy between whites and blacks is seen in the article “Minorities often face pressure to fit in.” This article describes the experiences of LaVon Wright Bracy. She was a victim of racial hierarchy because white students at her school avoided the hallways she walked in and would leave the lunch table once she sat down. The white students didn’t think Bracy was good enough to sit with them or be around them due to the color of her skin. Racial hierarchy in contemporary times is a mindset that many people carry around with them, many times unconsciously. It guides people’s judgments and attitudes regarding their understanding of race relations, which is clearly seen in the case of
The United States developed the official poverty measures in 1960. It was developed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had declared a war on poverty during the Civil Rights era. (The Path of Power- The years of Lyndon B. Johnson, (Caro, 16). The poverty rate of African Americans has been declining for many years. The Census Bureau releases two reports every year that describe who is poor in the United States based on cash resources. There is also the supplemental poverty measure (SPM) which takes account for the cash resources and non cash benefits from government programs aimed at low income families. (www.Census.gov/People and household). In 2012 there were over 46.5 million people in poverty and of those numbers 10 million were African American according to the poverty reports. African Americans have been a major factor since slavery. Since the late 1660s there has been a race on poverty since the marches of the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. Martin Luther King. One of the protests was the call to March on Washington in 1963. Dr. King stated that “on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity”. (MLK speech, March on Washington, 1963)
The Association of Black Psychologist (ABP) (2013) defines colorism as skin-color stratification. Colorism is described as “internalized racism” that is perceived to be a way of life for the group that it is accepted by (ABP 2013). Moreover, colorism is classified as a persistent problem within Black American. Colorism in the process of discriminatory privileges given to lighter-skinned individuals of color over their darker- skinned counterparts (Margret Hunter 2007). From a historical standpoint, colorism was a white constructed policy in order to create dissention among their slaves as to maintain order or obedience. Over the centuries, it seems that the original purpose of colorism remains. Why has this issue persisted? Blacks have been able to dismantle the barriers faced within the larger society of the United States. Yet, Blacks have failed to properly address the sins of the past within the ethnic group. As a consequence of this failure, colorism prevails. Through my research, I developed many questions: Is it right that this view remain? How does valuing an individual over another cause distribution to the mental health of the victims of colorism? More importantly, what are the solutions for colorism? Colorism, unfortunately, has had a persisted effect on the lives of Black Americans. It has become so internalized that one cannot differentiate between the view of ourselves that Black Americans adopted from slavery or a more personalized view developed from within the ethnicity. The consequences of this internalized view heightens the already exorbitant mental health concerns within the Black community, but the most unfortunate aspect of colorism is that there is contention on how the issue should be solved.
Societies all through out time have had some form of stratification, but they varied in their degree of inequality. Social stratification is still in effect in today’s American society and creates social inequality. Newman states “Just as geologists talk about strata of rock, which are layered one on top of another, the “social strata” of people are arranged from low to high” (Newman 2014). Everyone is affected by social stratification and categorized based on their occupation and income.
Throughout history, and in today’s society, race has been a debated topic. Even today the question about whether race influences intelligence, athletic ability, and creativeness is still discussed. Through scientific research it is known that race contributes nothing to how a person thinks, feels, or acts and that is it society that creates these standards. When looking into the past there was much controversy about blacks and their self worth. According to the Thomas Jefferson’s article “Notes on the State of Virginia” blacks and whites are naturally different and fixed by nature. In other words blacks are naturally not as intelligent as whites, but today’s knowledge argues, and proves, otherwise. There is also argument about the possibility that blacks are inferior to whites because of their environment. In the movie “Race, the Power of Illusion” teenagers of many different races and ethnic backgrounds were tested to determine how different they really are from one another. In the end, everyone finds out they may not be as different as originally thought. Society as a whole needs to realize we, as Americans, are more alike than we think. If everyone can get over skin color as a classification, then society will have overcome a huge barrier and the future for equality will become clearer.
Social stratification is seen everywhere within the United States and around the world. As discussed in lecture, there are two types of stratification systems, and both are prominent in the United States. The first type is achievement based, which depends on a person’s wealth and accomplishments (Wadsworth). In the film, “People Like Us,” this system is presented. A teenage boy is embarrassed of his mother and his family’s social status, so he hides is social class from his friends. The second system is ascription-based stratification which has to do with what an individual is born with. The school that was interviewed and observed in “People Like Us,” prove that the family you are born into plays a huge role in popularity, and the group of friends you choose to surround yourself with. Another example in this film was the WASP label. The man they interviewed, explained that you are
In South Africa under apartheid, the lighter you were the better you were. Many in the U.S. and throughout the world still believe, to some extent, that lighter is better. I recently attended a black/brown conference on coalition building between the African-American and Latino communities and the question of discrimination within the Hispanic community arose. The questioners concern was how light dark discrimination would inhibit coalition building between the two communities. When I was a kid growing up in Columbia, South Carolina, I believed I would accomplish more in life if I were white. Most of the successful, stable families I knew were white. I believed whites had what they had because they were white. When achievement is seen as a purely a white domain, bad things happened to kids. As my barber told me over spring break, her teenaged niece stopped trying in school when the other kids accused her of "acting white."
...es and Hertel, light-skinned Blacks are nevertheless better educated and higher paid than dark-skinned Blacks (38). There is no doubt that racial divisions remain within the Black community. This is evident by noticing that the majority of people living in low-income areas and prisons are dark-skinned Blacks (38).
What can you do in four years? Get a bachelor’s degree, learn to play the piano, have a child, write a book—the potential is enormous. Four years. In the US, the average life expectancy at birth for African Americans is nearly four years less than that of Whites (Kochanek, Arias, & Anderson, 2015). A large contributor to this disparity is difference in health outcomes between Whites and Blacks in the US. For example, African Americans have higher rates of a myriad of diseases than Whites, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia, which leads to a shorter life expectancy and poorer quality of life (Sullivan, 2013; Kuzawa & Sweet, 2009). A major mechanism causing this disparity is epigenetic modifications due to psychosocial effects of racism as well as environmental racism, which prevents African Americans’ access to healthy foods while increasing exposure to harmful environmental toxins. The poor health outcomes associated with being Black in America are only exacerbated by institutions that systematically prevent access to quality health care.
Social stratification systems are present in every functioning society. A stratification system organizes the members of the society into different categories so that members of the society know their social position in society (Larkin, 2015). Members of the society are placed into the different categories based on their race and gender. Every stratification system allows for a different amount of social mobility. In this essay we will look at three social stratification systems, slavery, caste, and class, and we will compare males and females by race, class, and education.