Race, Ethnicity, and Social Stratification in America

Social Stratification and Ethnic Motivation

The relationship between ethnicity and stratification is significant because modern society is culturally diverse. It is important to understand what motivates various ethnic groups to strive for success and how social stratification plays a significant role in this process. The opportunity for training and furthering one's level of education is promising for individuals of all ethnicities. Where some form of stratification system exists within society, individuals are likely to view this inequality as a motivational factor — one that encourages them to make sacrifices and pursue additional training for higher-status jobs. This facilitates individuals in these groups to achieve higher strata in society and be deemed successful.

Social stratification is necessary in order to motivate ethnically diverse groups to train for more important jobs. There are three theories of stratification: the functional theory of stratification, conflict theory and stratification, and social interactionism and stratification. All three theories relate to the relationship between ethnicity and stratification in several ways. The theory that applies most directly to race and stratification is the functional theory of stratification. This theory argues three points: first, that some jobs are more important than others; second, that people must make sacrifices to train for those important jobs; and third, that inequality is required to motivate people to undergo those sacrifices.

White Racism, Privilege, and Evasion Strategies

Many white Americans equate racism with individual prejudice and personal ignorance, which allows them to assume that every group is equally capable of racism while avoiding acknowledgment of the differences in power and privilege between whites and people of color. Many whites also define culture in a way that draws rigid, impermeable boundaries around groups, viewing culture as consisting of fixed and unchanging holdovers from the past. Moreover, equating ethnicity with race is a related strategy for evading racism — one that highlights cultural heritage while denying whiteness as a phenomenon worthy of scrutiny.

White Americans further evade the subject of racism by constructing sentences that allow them to discuss it while rhetorically removing themselves from responsibility. A final strategy is to avoid the subject altogether by employing passive sentence construction. Though many white Americans do not actively support racist beliefs, actions, or policies, they do not want to risk breaking bonds with other whites, and so they remain silent. As scholars suggest, breaking with whiteness requires learning to share and listen with people who are not of European descent, with the goal of constructing ways of life that are healthy and sustainable for everyone. The socioeconomic status of white Americans remains higher than that of other groups in society; they hold greater political privileges, and this dynamic often serves their collective self-interests.