1. Chapter 3 Ethnic and Racial Stratification
Understanding Race and Ethnic Relations 5th Edition
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2. Learning Objectives Understand how social class and social
standing effect race relations.
Understand the foundation of intergroup
conflict in the U.S.
Use sociological theories to understand
ethnic and gender stratification

3. Social Structure The organized patterns of behavior
among the basic components of a social
system that provide orderly, predictable
behavior among different peoples in a
society.

4. SOCIAL STRUCTURES SOCIAL STRUCTURES SOCIAL STRUCTURES
Traditional Institutions
Family, Economy,
Political System,
Religion, Education
Emergent Institutions
Mass Media, Medicine,
Legal System, Science,Sports
Roles
SOCIAL STRUCTURES
Society
Population that shares similar territory and is bound by political and economic ties. Shares a common culture.
Macro-level
Primary Group
Small, Personal, Permanent,
Strong bonds, Non-rational
decision-making process,
Informal structure
Secondary Group
Large, Impersonal, Temporary,Weak bonds (self-interest), Rational decision-making process, Formal structure
Status
Achieved, Ascribed
Roles
Micro-level
Norms Values Interpersonal Interactions Ideologies (Beliefs)
Society
Population that shares similar territory and is bound by political and economic ties. Oftentimes shares a common culture.
Traditional Institutions
Family
Economy
Political System
Religion
Education
Emergent Institutions
Mass Media
Medicine
Legal System
Science
Sports
Primary Group
Small
Personal, intimate
Permanent
Strong bonds
Non-rational decision-making process
Informal structure
Secondary Group
Large
Impersonal
Temporary
Weak bonds (self-interest)
Rational decision-making process
Formal structure
Roles
Status
Achieved
Ascribed
Norms Values Interpersonal Interactions Ideologies (Beliefs)
Macro-level
Micro-level
SOCIAL STRUCTURES
Society
Population that shares similar territory and is bound by political and economic ties. Oftentimes shares a common culture.
Traditional Institutions
Family
Economy
Political System
Religion
Education
Emergent Institutions
Mass Media
Medicine
Legal System
Science
Sports
Primary Group
Small
Personal, intimate
Permanent
Strong bonds
Non-rational decision-making process
Informal structure
Secondary Group
Large
Impersonal
Temporary
Weak bonds (self-interest)
Rational decision-making process
Formal structure
Roles
Status
Achieved
Ascribed
Norms Values Interpersonal Interactions Ideologies (Beliefs)
Macro-level
Micro-level
SOCIAL STRUCTURES
SOCIAL STRUCTURES
SOCIAL STRUCTURES
SOCIAL STRUCTURES
SOCIAL STRUCTURES
Society
Population that shares similar territory and is bound by political and economic ties. Oftentimes shares a common culture.
SOCIAL STRUCTURES
Society
Population that shares similar territory and is bound by political and economic ties. Oftentimes shares a common culture.
Society
Population that shares similar territory and is bound by political and economic ties. Oftentimes shares a common culture.
Society
Population that shares similar territory and is bound by political and economic ties. Oftentimes shares a common culture.
Society
Population that shares similar territory and is bound by political and economic ties. Oftentimes shares a common culture.
Traditional Institutions
Family
Economy
Political System
Religion
Education
Emergent Institutions
Mass Media
Medicine
Legal System
Science
Sports
Traditional Institutions
Family
Economy
Political System
Religion
Education
Emergent Institutions
Mass Media
Medicine
Legal System
Science
Sports
Traditional Institutions
Family
Economy
Political System
Religion
Education
Emergent Institutions
Mass Media
Medicine
Legal System
Science
Sports
Traditional Institutions
Family
Economy
Political System
Religion
Education
Emergent Institutions
Mass Media
Medicine
Legal System
Science
Sports
Macro-level
Traditional Institutions
Family
Economy
Political System
Religion
Education
Emergent Institutions
Mass Media
Medicine
Legal System
Science
Sports
Macro-level
Macro-level
Macro-level
Macro-level
Primary Group
Small
Personal, intimate
Permanent
Strong bonds
Non-rational decision-making process
Informal structure
Secondary Group
Large
Impersonal
Temporary
Weak bonds (self-interest)
Rational decision-making process
Formal structure
Primary Group
Small
Personal, intimate
Permanent
Strong bonds
Non-rational decision-making process
Informal structure
Secondary Group
Large
Impersonal
Temporary
Weak bonds (self-interest)
Rational decision-making process
Formal structure
Primary Group
Small
Personal, intimate
Permanent
Strong bonds
Non-rational decision-making process
Informal structure
Secondary Group
Large
Impersonal
Temporary
Weak bonds (self-interest)
Rational decision-making process
Formal structure
Primary Group
Small
Personal, intimate
Permanent
Strong bonds
Non-rational decision-making process
Informal structure
Secondary Group
Large
Impersonal
Temporary
Weak bonds (self-interest)
Rational decision-making process
Formal structure
Primary Group
Small
Personal, intimate
Permanent
Strong bonds
Non-rational decision-making process
Informal structure
Secondary Group
Large
Impersonal
Temporary
Weak bonds (self-interest)
Rational decision-making process
Formal structure
Roles
Status
Achieved
Ascribed
Roles
Status
Achieved
Ascribed
Roles
Status
Achieved
Ascribed
Roles
Status
Achieved
Ascribed
Micro-level
Norms Values Interpersonal Interactions Ideologies (Beliefs)
Roles
Status
Achieved
Ascribed
Micro-level
Norms Values Interpersonal Interactions Ideologies (Beliefs)
Micro-level
Norms Values Interpersonal Interactions Ideologies (Beliefs)
Micro-level
Norms Values Interpersonal Interactions Ideologies (Beliefs)
Micro-level
Norms Values Interpersonal Interactions Ideologies (Beliefs)

5. Types of Stratification Systems
Closed Systems Open Systems
Caste Estate Class Slave

6. Structural Conditions
Social Stratification
The hierarchal classification of members of society based on the unequal distribution of resources, power and prestige
Resources
Power
Prestige

7. Structural Stratification
Resources
Includes property (assets) such as wealth or income
Power
The ability to influence or control others
Prestige
Relates to status, either ascribed (based on birth) or achieved (based on individual accomplishments)

8. Social Class
People who share a similar level of income, amount of property, degree of power, status, and type of lifestyle.

9. Methods of Measuring Social Class
Reputational: Asking people how they thought others compared to them. Socioeconomic status: Objective, quantifiable measure based on income, level of education, and prestige. Self-identification: Ask people what social class they think they belong to.

10. The U.S. Social Class Ladder
© Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Gilbert and Kahl, 1998, and Gilbert 2014.

11. Ethnicity and Social Class
Ethclasses Subsocieties resulting from the intersection of stratifications of race and ethnic group with stratifications of social class.

12. Semi-Caste Model
Race and ethnicity are factors in the stratification system of the U.S. There is a social class hierarchy within each race, but there is also a castelike barrier between races. Upper-class nonwhites are not as wealthy as upper-class whites, and the lowest positions in the social-class hierarchy are reserved for nonwhites.

13. Indicators of Relative Economic Well-Being
Semi-Caste Model
Indicators of Relative Economic Well-Being
Family Income Families in Poverty
Median Compared % in Compared
Income to Whites Poverty to Whites
Whites $69, % Asian Americans $77, % higher % % lower
Latinos $41, % lower % % higher
African Americans $40, % lower % % higher
Native Americans $41, % lower % % higher
Source: Statistical Abstract of the US 2014: Tables 37, 739; Krogstad, 2014.
Within each racial or ethnic grouping, the richest 20% receive almost fifty percent of all income for the group. This is indicative of class differences. But it is also the case that Whites and Asian Americans as a group have considerably higher incomes than African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans, indicating real race and ethnic differences. This is supportive of the semi-caste model.

14. Culture of Poverty
A set of values that emphasizes living for the moment rather than thrift, investment in the future, or hard work.
Oscar Lewis (born Lefkowitz), born Dec. 25, 1914, died Dec. 16, 1970, was an American anthropologist who introduced the concept of the culture of poverty.

15. Culture of Poverty
Lewis gave some seventy characteristics (1966) that indicated the
presence of the culture of poverty:
The people in the culture of poverty have a strong feeling of marginality, of
helplessness, of dependency, of not belonging. They are like aliens in their own
country, convinced that the existing institutions do not serve their interests and
needs. Along with this feeling of powerlessness is a widespread feeling of inferiority,
of personal unworthiness. This is true of the slum dwellers of Mexico City, who do
not constitute a distinct ethnic or racial group and do not suffer from racial
discrimination. In the United States the culture of poverty of the Negroes has the
additional disadvantage of racial discrimination. People with a culture of poverty
have very little sense of history. They are a marginal people who know only their own
troubles, their own local conditions, their own neighborhood, their own way of life.
Usually, they have neither the knowledge, the vision nor the ideology to see the
similarities between their problems and those of others like themselves elsewhere in
the world. In other words, they are not class consciousness, although they are very
sensitive indeed to status distinctions. When the poor become class conscious or
members of trade union organizations, or when they adopt an internationalist outlook
on the world they are, in my view, no longer part of the culture of poverty although
they may still be desperately poor.
Lewis, Oscar (1966). "The Culture of Poverty", cited by G. Gmelch and W. Zenner, eds. in Urban Life, Waveland Press (1996).

16. Culture of Poverty Existing Debate
Cultural determinism (Lewis, Banfield,
(Moynihan)—the poor transmit cultural
inadequacies to their children. or
Economic determinism (Ryan,
Harrington, Rodman, and Della Fave)—
poverty results from pre-existing
structural barriers and discrimination.

17. Culture of Poverty
Value-Stretch Approach L. Richard Della Fave suggested that the poor adopt such an approach when the gap between ideal value preference and achievement expectation becomes too great. In other words, the poor do not have values that differ greatly from the mainstream in terms of work and success. They have different behaviors that represent different coping mechanisms.

18. Cultural Differentiation
The greater the visible differences between the arriving minority group and the existing indigenous groups in terms of language, religion, clothing, diet, and other cultural factors.

19. Ethnic Stratification
Refers to the clustering of particular ethnic groups at particular levels of the social stratification system. It occurs whenever any distribution of a group other than equal representation in all social classes appears.

20. Ethnic Stratification
How does ethnic stratification continue in a democracy where supposedly all have an equal opportunity for upward mobility?
Functionalists
Suggest that the ethnocentrism of those in the societal mainstream leads to discrimination of those in out-groups, as determined by racial & ethnic differences
Conflict theorists
Stress the subordination of minorities by the dominant group because that group benefits from such ethnic stratification

21. Origins of Ethnic Stratification
Power-Differential Theory
Intergroup relations depends on the relative power of the migrant group and the indigenous group.
Internal-Colonialism Theory
U.S. treatment of its Black population resembled past European subjugation and exploitation of non-Western peoples in their own lands.

22. Multiethnic society without ethnic stratificationB C D
Upper class
Upper-middle
Lower-middle
Lower class

23. Multiethnic society with moderate ethnic stratificationB C D
Upper class
Upper-middle
Lower-middle
Lower class

24. Multiethnic society with complete ethnic stratification
Upper class A B C D
Upper-middle
Lower-middle
Lower class

25. Supplement: Gender Stratification
Stratification by Gender
Schaefer, Sociology in Modules, ch. 11

26. Cross-Cultural Perspective
Anthropologists documented highly diverse constructions of gender
Gender stratification requires:
Individual socialization into traditional gender roles within family
Promotion and support of traditional roles by other social institutions

27. Dividing tasks between spouses was functional for the family as a unit
Sociological Perspectives
on Gender Stratification
The functionalist view
Contributes to overall social stability
Instrumentality: Emphasis on tasks
Expressiveness: Maintenance of harmony and internal emotional affairs of family
Dividing tasks between spouses was functional for the family as a unit

28. Sociological Perspectives on Gender Stratification
Conflict response
Functionalist approach masks underlying power relations between men and women
Relationship between females and males is traditionally one of unequal power
View gender differences as reflection of subjugation of one by another group

29. Sociological Perspectives on Gender Stratification
Feminist perspective
Engels: women’s subjugation coincided with rise of private property
Many contemporary theorists view subordination as part of overall exploitation and injustice inherent in capitalist societies
Matrix of domination: Convergence of social forces that contribute to subordinate status of poor, non-white women

30. Sociological Perspectives on Gender Stratification
The interactionist approach
Study gender stratification on microlevel
We “do gender” by reinforcing traditionally masculine and feminine actions
Continuing investigation of role of gender in cross-sex conversations (crosstalk)

31. Sociological Perspectives on Gender Stratification