Stratification: Propagation of the Status Quo

The interesting aspect about last Tuesday’s videos discussing stratification is how the Tupac Shakur video directly reinforced the concepts presented in the 1957 video.  This post examines how social institutions work to propagate the status quo with regards to stratification—specifically socio-economic stratification.

Stratification within a society occurs when the population is separated according to various levels.  Educational institutions stratify students early in their studies by grouping students according to reading abilities or math abilities.  They later stratify the students again with college entrance exams and grade point averages.  Likewise, society stratifies the population according to social status as well as economic status.  These two stratifications although separate are closely related.

Each level of stratification contains its own values and norms.  For instance, you receive an invitation to a reception with R.S.V.P. written on the bottom.  Do you attend the reception with no further coordination?  Do you R.S.V.P. only if you intend to attend?  Do you R.S.V.P. with either an intent to attend or to send regrets?  If you responded with an intent to attend but circumstances prevent your attendance, do you send your regrets to the hostess?  How you respond to the R.S.V.P. reflects the norms of the social class  you belong to  from the “Red Neck” class to a more upper class and classes in-between.  Sending or not sending thank-you notes, does casual dress mean shorts and flip flops or slacks and sport coat, bringing a housewarming gift for the hostess, etc. are all norms within various social classes and within each respective class is either reinforced or sanctioned according to the norms of that class.  Although the values and norms of your social class will be taught within the family, the peers of that social class will replace the family in relevance to reinforcing or sanctioning adherence to the norms of your social class.

In the McGraw-Hill video, as the three young men grew and developed, the values and norms of their social and economic class were reinforced within the family.  The laborer’s family reinforces that finding a good job after high school is highly desired; the white collar family teaches and reinforces follow-on training to secure a white collar supervisory position; the upper class family teaches and reinforces the superiority of the young man’s social position sending him to an Ivy League school followed by higher-end managerial positions.  Vertical advancement (climbing to a higher social or economic class), was unattainable without horizontal displacement (moving away from family and established peer groups).  Within each social and economic class (or stratification), the social institutions (in this case, family and peer group) teach, reinforce, and therefore propagate the status quo of the individual’s social and economic class.  An individual can climb vertically from one class to another but will require some form of horizontal displacement to overcome the obstacles and inertia that inherently try to maintain their position within the strata. 

Tupac Shakur’s video with its direct implication that society is solely responsible for the disenfranchisement of black society that the American dream is a myth are most likely the propagation of the socialization he received in his home from his mother Afeni Shakur.  Afeni was a member of the Black Panthers and one month before Shakur’s birth was acquitted of more than 150 charges of "Conspiracy against the United States government and New York landmarks" in the New York Panther 21 court case.  During her participation in the Black Panthers organization, the goals of the organization had morphed to the pursuit of socialism without racial exclusivity and the use of community social programs to alleviate poverty.  Tupac’s advocacy for these types of  approaches to addressing the needs of the social class of black society that he represented in his video can be attributed to his socialization within the family (this is a statement on the source of his social perspective not on the validity, either pro or con, of his perspective).

That social institutions propagate the status quo has been further argued in the media.  L. Z. Granderson wrote on 4 October that many of the socio-economic barriers  faced by black society are self-inflicted wounds that are accepted rather than rejected.  He argues that until black society changes the values and norms of its socialization, N-word controversies will continue to be diversions from removing the barriers to progress within black society.

Society stratifies its membership using a variety of metrics.  Social institutions provide a certain inertia  hindering vertical mobility to more desirable classes within the stratification.  The barriers and inertia preventing vertical mobility within the strata can be overcome by some form of horizontal displacement such as relocation, education, etc..  The question then becomes, if vertical mobility requires some form of horizontal displacement, does individual initiative and self motivation or community social programs prove the more effective means of horizontal displacement to achieve vertical mobility?

References:

Granderson, L. Z. “Rick Perry’s Rock—Not Our Problem.” CNN.com 4 Oct. 2011, 11 Oct 2011. http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/04/opinion/perry-rock-black-community/index.html