Social Stratification

Social stratification is the division of a society into a hierarchy of groups. This can be done in many ways; the most common today being slavery, caste, and class. Slavery stratification happens when one person owns one or more others; these others being required to work for their owner for free, or a small living. Even though banned everywhere in the world, it still continues to be a problem. The caste system is used to segregate people by where they are born. Though it was abolished in the early 20^th century, India has a strong caste system, where people's socioeconomic status is determined at birth. If a boy is born to a priest, he will be a priest; if a girl is born to an untouchable, she will be an untouchable. So, the caste system still remains a very rigid part of Indian society. The last major stratification method used today is class. This type of system has been in place in the United States, the United Kingdom, and many other countries for hundreds of years.

The main deciding factor in the class system is economic status. If someone is poor, he or she is at the bottom of the class system, the lower class; if someone is rich, he or she is in the upper class. A person's class, however, can change. This is called social mobility, the movement of a person between class divisions. Because of social mobility, the class system is more flexible than the caste system. But, even though social mobility is possible, it is not probable. This is depicted in the social stratification video from 1957. One of the main characters is Theodore Eastwood, who is born to a middle class family. Theodore works hard, graduates high school, and eventually gets a good job. But after a while, he becomes restless and decides to move to New York City, where he quickly becomes an art director for an advertising agency. Even though he has a great, high-paying job, socially he is still middle class, which he realizes when he returns home and sees his upper class friend married to his old sweetheart (also upper class). Theodore's job is only an achieved status, a social position that is acquired only through merit. To be upper class, Theodore would have to have an ascribed status, which is determined at birth. This is the major reason why it is so rare for someone to move up in social class.

As seen in the 2Pac video, social immobility can cause restlessness among the lower classes until eventually violence breaks through. 2Pac describes the process through an analogy: “If I know that in this hotel room they have food everyday...I'm standing outside trying to sing my way in.” At first the song is pleasant: “We hungry, please let us in.” Then, it grows more aggressive: “We hungry, we need some food.” Then, it becomes even more aggressive: “Gimme that food, or I'm breaking down the door!” Then, it finally culminates into “I'm picking the lock, coming through the door blasting!” If society continually denies things to a certain class of people, those same people will first become restless, then gradually more aggressive until finally violence breaks out. We see this frequently in the news, where riots and violence erupt in poor neighborhoods.

2Pac shows a great understanding of social problems in America. He also has a great idea about how to fix them. Near the end of the video, he points to the camera and says, “You wherever [you are]...you need to do something.” Each one of us has a responsibility to understand these problems. That is the first step to solving them and making the world a better place to live.