Racial and Social Inequality

Racial and Social Inequality
• Together, people accomplish a great many things that they could not otherwise achieve. But the
advantages and disadvantages of collective enterprise are not evenly shared.
• Burdens and benefits are unevenly distributed among different categories of people.
• Racial & Social Inequality
• Social arrangements are not “neutral” but serve and promote the goals and interests of some
people more than some others.
• This structural ranking of people and groups is termed “social stratification.”
• Social stratification depends upon but is not the same thing as “social differentiation”—the process
by which the members of society divide up activities and become “different” by virtue of playing
distinctive roles.
• Dimensions of Stratification
The multidimensional view suggests three components of the stratification:
• Class (economic)
• Status (prestige)
• Party (power)
Each of these constitutes a distinct aspect of social ranking. But for the most part, feed into and support
one another.
• Economic
• It consists of wealth and income. Wealth has to do with what people own and income refers to
amount of money what people receive.
• A person may have a good amount of wealth but receives little income on it (coin collector, precious
gems or work of art).
• Another person may receive high salary but spends it on good life and have little wealth.
• People may inherit the wealth or acquire it through their own work.
• Prestige
• It is the social respect, admiration, and recognition we associate with a social status. It is a feeling
that we are admired and thought well of by others.
• It is intangible, something we carry about in our heads, but we do give it a tangible existence
through titles, deference rituals, honorary degrees, emblems, and conspicuous display of leisure
and consumption—considered symbols of prestige.
• Our interaction with others is a mutual exchange of “ego messages”—just how much deference,
honor and respect we are to extend and receive, “I will be attentive, only if you are attentive to me”.
• At societal level, celebration of heroes is to produce a system of inequality.
• Prestige (contd.)
• If we are to gain and hold prestige, it is not enough to possess wealth and power. We must put it on
public view by using money for “non-essential” goods and services.
• Conspicuous consumption and conspicuous leisure is a way of “status seeking” phenomenon. In
England, until 18th century, aristocracy lived in castles, Egyptians put their belongings in their
tombs.
• Today we display a luxurious lifestyle by lavish expenditures on clothing, hence increasing the
symbolic significance of prestige.
• Power
• Power determines which people or groups will be able to translate their preferences into reality.
• It is ability of the individuals/groups to realize their will in human affairs, even against the will of
others.
• It provides answer to the question of whose interests will be served and whose values will reign.
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• At each and every situation in life—from gangs to nation-state, some parties have their way much
more than the others.
• Even in matter of simple conversation, we note the operation of power.
• Power (contd.)
• Power also governs waiting—who waits upfront, who waits in back, and who waits not at all. So
with power comes the ability to control time, one’s own and others. (unwritten rule in universities to
wait)
• Every social act is an exercise of power, every social relationship is a power equation and every
social group or system is an organization of power.
• People high in power take disproportionate time and show their power by interrupting the people
low in ranks.
• Power (contd.)
The basis of power has three categories:
• Constraints: adding new disadvantages to a situation—kind of punishment as it entails harming
the body, psyche, or possessions of others.
• Inducements: adding new advantages to a situation—a reward as it involves transfer of
socially defined good things, like material objects, services or social positions—in exchange for
compliance with the wishes of a power holder.
• Persuasion: ability of a person to change the minds of others without adding
advantages/disadvantages to a situation. It is based on reputation, wisdom, personal
attractiveness or control of media—people are led to prefer what power holder prefers.
• Power (contd.)
• Power affects our ability to make the world work on our behalf. To gain mastery of critical resources
and then mastery of people. (dictating and waiting)
• To control key resources is to interpose oneself (or one’s group) between people and the means
whereby people meet their biological, psychological and social needs.
• Through reward, punishment and persuasive communication, they are able to dictate the terms by
which the game of life is played.
• They set the agendas, determine the issues that may be contested, and also decide the rules of
game.
• Open & Closed Class System
• Stratification system differs in the ease with which they permit people to move in or out of particular
class.
• When people change the status with relative ease—it is open system, focusing achieved status.
(Equal opportunity, merit and competence).
• When people have great difficulty in changing status—it is closed system—based on caste system
or ascribed status. People inherit their social status at birth from their parents and cannot change
it. In India the members of inferior caste are scorned, snubbed, and oppressed by higher caste
members regardless of their personal merit and behavior.

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