Social Stratification Flashcards
Social Stratification
The ordering and ranking of individuals within society
Social Inequality
Those at the top have more power, prestige, wealth, and privileges
What is social positioning based on?
Not natural or inherent
Not based on merit
Based mostly on circumstances and factors you can’t change
Self-Awareness
Not having to think about privilege is a form of privilege
Default categories in North American society
Privilege = BAD
Privilege does not make you a bad person
You can’t really make yourself less privileged
Need to be aware of the benefits
Use those benefits to make space for less privileged people
What is Race
A culturally constructed form of identity and social hierarchy.
Shared physical characteristics
Genotype
The genetic information about particular biological traits encoded in an organism’s DNA
Phenotype
the observable, measurable overt characteristics of an organism
Class
identity informed by economic status and/or birth
Caste
identity informed by birth, based on ranked social and occupational groups of parents
Sex
hormonal, chromosomal differences between males and females
Gender
culturally constructed ideals of behavior, dress,, occupations, roles, etc for each sex
Third gender
someone who doesn’t fit in strictly masculine or feminine gender roles
Social Hierarchy in Practice
Overlapping and interwoven
Race and class are often mixed
“Whitening” in Brazil
Sanitized bodies” in Canada
New Racism
a form of racism that claims racial difference is cultural instead of biological, but which still views such differences as insurmountable
