Racial Stratification Probably the best way to begin to understand racial and ethnic inequality in the United States is to read first-hand accounts by such great writers of color as Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Piri Thomas, Richard Wright, and Malcolm X, all of whom wrote moving, autobiographical accounts of the bigotry and discrimination they faced while growing up. Sociologists and urban ethnographers have written their own accounts of the daily lives of people of color, and these, too, are well worth reading. One of the classics is Elliot Liebow’s (1967)Tally’s Corner, a study of Black men and their families in Washington, DC.

In general, all societies are stratified along one or more lines comprised of race/ethnicity, sex/gender, age, religion, disability, and/or social class or socioeconomic status (SES), which is a measured by similar levels of income, education, and occupation. Social stratification is the unequal ways in which the resources of society are distributed. Sociologist Craig Oettinger defines stratification as who gets what and how much they get over time. According to Abercrombie and Urry (1983), social differences become social stratification when people are ranked hierarchically along some dimension of inequality whether this be income, wealth, power, prestige, age, ethnicity or some other characteristic. Sociologists use the term social stratification to describe the system of social standing.

Gender stratification focuses on the unequal access females have to socially valued resources, power, prestige, and personal freedom as compared to men based on differing positions within the socio-cultural hierarchy (Light, Keller, & Calhoun, 1997). Traditionally, society treats women as second-class citizens in society. The design of dominant gender ideologies and inequality maintains the prevailing social structure, presenting male privilege as part of the natural order (Parenti, 2006). Theorists suggest society is a male dominated patriarchy where men think of themselves as inherently superior to women resulting in unequal distribution of rewards between men and women (Henslin, 2011).

Gender Stratification Each of us is born with physical characteristics that represent and socially assign our sex and gender. Sex refers to our biological differences, and gender the cultural traits assigned to females and males (Kottak & Kozaitis, 2012). While our physical make-up distinguishes our sex, society and our social interaction implicates the gender socialization process we will experience throughout our life. Gender identity is an individual’s self-concept and their association with femininity, masculinity and perhaps questioning of these social categories. Children learn gender roles a

Racial Stratification Probably the best way to begin to understand racial and ethnic inequality in the United States is to read first-hand accounts by such great writers of color as Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Piri Thomas, Richard Wright, and Malcolm X, all of whom wrote moving, autobiographical accounts of the bigotry and discrimination they faced while growing up. Sociologists and urban ethnographers have written their own accounts of the daily lives of people of color, and these, too, are well worth reading. One of the classics is Elliot Liebow’s (1967)Tally’s Corner, a study of Black men and their families in Washington, DC.

Reform movements seek to change something specific about the social structure, including political, economic, or social systems. Historical examples include the abolitionist movement preceding the Civil War, the woman suffrage movement that followed the Civil War, the Southern civil rights movement, the gay rights movement, and the environmental movement. Contemporary examples of reform movements include the DREAMers movement for immigration reform and the Black Lives Matter movement. Revolutionary movements extend one large step further than a reform movement in seeking to overthrow the existing government and to bring about a new one and even a new way of life. These revolutionary or political movements seek to completely change every aspect of society. The United States, French, Mexican and other national revolutions fall under this category. Reactionary movements seek to prevent or undo change to the social structure. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and the Minutemen militia represent examples of reactionary movements. Both of these movements reflected white supremacy, while the KKK projected anti-Black, anti-Jewish and anti-immigrant attitudes, and the latter reflected nativism, the policy and practice of promoting the interests of "native" inhabitants against those of immigrants. In their attempt to return the institutions and values of the past by doing away with existing ones, conservative reactionary movements seek to uphold t

family has a high potential to impact quality family time, sometimes resulting in lesser educational outcomes. Connecting dysfunctional social institutions, Shirley Better presented the term web of institutional racism, further discussed in Chapter 6.5, to explain the interrelated impact of substandard housing, poor schooling opportunities, lack of job opportunities, and inadequate health care.