Literature Review Example: How Race/Ethnicity Does Affect Social Stratification in the United States

2021-07-20
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Literature review
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Social stratification is a common term used by the sociologist to defines the society categorization or ranking of its citizens or the people living in the country depending on the socioeconomic status of the people. And considers other factors such as the income, wealth, race and also the education and power of the people.

Racial and ethnic stratification may at some time referred to the system of inequality in which fixed groups or people have the membership. And they are grouped as race or at sometime religion. The national origin is a major factor used for categorizing or grouping the individuals in their social position and helps in determining their differential rewards. The race is also presumed as a common genetic heritage which always results in personalizing the physical features.

In united states the stratification of race has been highly experienced and has always been a very crucial issue.it is always encountered between the whites and the black Americans in which most cases the black Americans are affected mostly with stratification. The racial stratification of black Americans has been experiencing the working environment and also the social life.

Social stratification in the united states has not been in any way an isolated phenomenon. It has always resulted in various incidences such us protests and even wars. The race class and also the gender has always been the key pillars on which stratification results, more in the united states.

African Americans have always had to undergo hard situations in the American society to achieve the equal status which is still a big problem and debate in the united states. The high rate of stratification in the United States has made the African Americans engage in something meaningful in their life. They launched a movement, which was known as the civil right movement that later resulted in advanced changes in the United States.

The rate of racial discrimination in the united states was high an even surprising as noted that even one century after the abolition of slavery the black people who are referred to as-as the black Americans was not even allowed to vote. In this way, they were even denied their democratic rights. In the field of job creation and job opportunities the rate of employment increased dramatically but due to racial stratification the black Americans were not absorbed, and this made them realize that there was inequality on how people were being treated.

The discriminated black Americans, therefore, concluded that the civil right policies were not favorable and to an extent failed to give the citizens equal opportunities and access to public opportunities. This made them push for civil rights acts which they later achieved but did not give them all the rights they demanded.

It is alleged that discrimination is still on the peak in the united states where black Americans are still subjected to unfair treatments. African Americans in several instances are witnessed being caught by police and sent to prisons more often as compared to their white counterparts in the united states. This is the result of ethnic profiling incorporated by the increased prejudices evident in the United States.

Ethnic profiling is evident in the United States as witnessed on streets, highways and even shopping centers. Black Africans are treated more severely, as opposed to how the whites are treated from their homes and even at their work place. Black Americans are only profiled for some casual low paying jobs while whites are enjoying well-paying jobs even if their educational backgrounds are in question.

Institutional discrimination was also highly experienced in the united states. It is when the customer or the traditional ways of doing or per forming things, the out coming attitudes and expectations and also the accepted general arrangement of work to the disadvantage of the poor in the society. This was highly witnessed in the united states and is still evident as most of the opportunities are granted to the whites as opposed to the poo r African Americans.

When the social classes within the united states are evaluated regarding how wealthy one is, material possession and land possession, the black American within the united states will still be the list in the li ne. This is because they possess a very small amount of wealth an, in fact, a very minimal percentage as compared to the wealth and material possession of the whites in the united states.

The united states were built up on the basis, or an economy of slavery and that only was a crime of greater magnitude. This is what has to lead to the high rate of long-lasting social stratification as compared to other countries like Germany. The rate of racial stratification has however decreased, this was evident when a black American was elected as the president of the united states.

In the context of conflict perspective on stratification, it is argued that the society or the community at large should reward regarding money and power to enable different persons in the community to fill such positions like those who have material positions like wealth. The poor or the less privileged in the community mainly being the black Americans in the united states should be given the opportunity in decision making and also be incorporated in other fields like medicine, religion and also military and at the same time teaching.

People in the united states should be accorded or given equal treatment without regard to race, gender or other extraneous characteristics. The general burden of change in the United States should lie or be incorporated into programs that are in a position to offer genuine equality among all people.

Social stratification can also be defined as the ranking of people or individuals within the same communities and possessing the sa me legal rights in the. The hierarchy that distinguishes the inferior and the superior. This has greatly applied in the united states where the constitutional rights are clear regarding equality of all the citizens but the rate of discrimination and social stratification is still very high and so the distinction between the inferior and the superior can easily be identified.

The united states, the country most people have always been soo skeptical about has not been the best place for African American citizens. The society being lead by a very organized constitution has repeatedly and continuously violated the law regarding the rights of blacks. This has been evidenced or achieved through treating them unfairly in many situations.in the united states racism, the wide spread discrimination, the tendency of white supremacy , inequality and at the same time lack of civil rights and equality and poverty. All the combined to creat a highly prejudiced community where the blacks were still bared from participating in the elections which are their constitutional right.

 

Bibliography

Hartung, Beth. 1991. "Unstratifying Stratification: Teaching Race, Gender, and Class." Teaching Sociology, 19(1):66-69

Henrard, Kristen. 2000. Devising an Adequate System of Minority Protection: Individual Human Rights, Minority Rights and the Right to Self-Determination. New York: Springer. ISBN 978-9041113597Horsford, Sonya Douglass. 2017. "A Race to the Top from the Bottom of the Well? The Paradox of Race and U.S. Education Reform." Educational Forum, 81(2):136-147

Levine R, Acker J, Wright E, et al. 2006. Social Class And Stratification : Classic Statements And Theoretical Debates [e-book]

Levine, Rhonda, et al. 2006 Social Class and Stratification : Classic Statements and Theoretical Debates. vol. 2nd ed, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Lippard, Cameron D. and Charles A. Gallagher.2014. Race and Racism in the United States: An Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic [4 Volumes]. Greenwood

Long, Ann C., et al. 2014 "Race, Income, and Education: Associations with Patient and Family Ratings of End-Of-Life Care and Communication Provided by Physicians-In-Training." Journal of Palliative Medicine

Maynard, Brandy R., et al. 2017."Truancy in the United States: Examining Temporal Trends and Correlates by Race, Age, and Gender." Children & Youth Services Review, 81:188-196

O'Flaherty, Brendan. 2015.The Economics of Race in the United States. Harvard University Press.

Perry-Rivers, P. 2014. "Stratification, Economic Adversity, and Entrepreneurial Launch: The Converse Effect of Resource Position on Entrepreneurial Strategy".

Posselt, Julie R. and Eric Grodsky. 2017. "Graduate Education and Social Stratification." Annual Review of Sociology, 43:353-378.

Pronchev, Gennadi B., et al. 2016."Contemporary Internet as a Means for Leveling Social Inequality in the Context of Relationships between Civil Society and the State." International Journal of Environmental and Science Education. 11(17):9959-9967

Rhodes, Jesse H., et al. 2017. "Is America More Divided by Race or Class? Race, Income, and Attitudes among Whites, African Americans, and Latinos." Forum (2194-6183), 15(1):71-91.

Ricard, John H. 2014. "Reflections on Race in America Today." Priest, 70(1):10-12.

Sohn, Elizabeth Kelley, et al. 2017. "Geography, Race/Ethnicity, and Physical Activity among Men in the United States." American Journal of Men's Health, 11(4):1019-1027

Sussman, Robert W. 2014. The Myth of Race : The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea. Harvard University Press.

Thompson, Michael J. 1996. "Social Stratification: Class, Race & Gender in Sociological Perspective (Book)." Review of Radical Political Economics, 28(2):127-130

WEISS, ELAINE. 2014. "Mismatches in Race to the Top Limit Education Improvement: Lack of Time, Resources, and Tools Puts Lofty State Goals out of Reach." Education Digest, 79(5):60

Wodtke, Geoffrey T. 2017. "Social Relations, Technical Divisions, and Class Stratification in the United States: An Empirical Test of the Death and Decomposition of Class Hypotheses." Social Forces 95(4)

Zhou, Xiang. 2012. "A Nonparametric Index of Stratification". Sociological Methodology. 42 (1): 365389. doi:10.1177/0081175012452207

 

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