Social stratification is defined as the condition of being arranged in social strata or classes within a group. There is a system of social stratification in every community of humans in existence, even the ones that are Communist. There are a few main ways of social stratification: class, caste, and slavery.
Slavery, though less common now than it used to be, still exists. As the woman in the video explains, slavery is “the complete domination and control of one person by another through violence”. This is the most obvious stratification system and offers the least possibility for mobility. This is because slaves are usually not seen as people, but property.
The second stratification system is the caste system. The video said it was based on ethnicity and occupation. I did a little background reading on how ethnicity plays into the caste system in Nepal, and found that their system was more about ethnicity than occupation, making it very different than the more well-known Indian system. There, the highest caste is those of Indian origin, followed by those of Mongol descent, and at the very bottom were the indigenous peoples. I found that at the bottom of many caste systems are the indigenous people, with the people with blood from whoever colonized them being towards the top. It is interesting to see how colonization lead to the rise of almost all these caste systems.
The last and most well-known system of stratification is class. Class is just as easily defined and observed, but is generally thought of as more allowing of social mobility. However, as the worldwide Occupy Together movement shows, this may not be the case anymore. The class system in America is divided into three sections: upper, lower, and middle class. Many members of the upper class were born into their class, a disproportionate amount compared to the other classes. The middle class is the most fluid class, with people moving up and down fairly regularly. Though it is possible to rise above one’s class, you have to fight the same battle as the wealthy without any of their benefits. I think about it as a game of golf. Imagine playing against Tiger Woods or Phil Mickleson with no handicap. Imagine if everyone expected you to do just as well as the pro’s with their years of training and the money to pay for the best equipment. Imagine being called “lazy” or “unintelligent” because you couldn’t keep up with them. Imagine there’s a very limited amount of free lessons you can access, but you are demonized and called a parasite for reaching out to these resources. You would be experiencing a very trivialized version of what the middle class goes through on a daily basis. Instead of a game of golf, it is the game of their lives. The lower class has it even worse. They have to play the game of golf without even being told what golf is.
The way to move up the social ladder is education. However, education costs money. Also, the lower classes are at an almost unconquerable disadvantage because public schools get their money from the community’s taxes. If the community has no money, the school has no money. Then the kids don’t get an education and colleges do not offer them scholarships. Many of the upper class say that these kids could just work harder to make up for their circumstances, but if they have none of the resources needed, how would that be possible?
Social stratification has always been a source of conflict and strife. Many people have tried to solve this problem, be it through Communism or attempting to make the class system even more rigid. This is clearly still a problem in the world today. There are revolutions popping up worldwide to address these issues.
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