Race and ethnicity are essential characteristic features that define people biologically and culturally. However, the race has often been used as a factor of discrimination and social stratification. The latter can be defined as a “system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy” (Macionis, 2019, p. 243). It has four critical features: individual differences within society, generational traits, variability, and incorporation of beliefs (Macionis, 2019). Social stratification can be open or closed, where changes can be introduced in the former, while alterations are impossible in the latter (Macionis, 2019). For example, historic gender differences in Western states were more open to restructuring compared to some conservative Islamic countries. Similarly, ethnic stratification in various societies had a different speed of change.
Although the United States is racially and ethnically diverse, it enables equality for people. However, initially, it maintained strict racial stratification of white and black people. Notably, such separation existed long after the Civil War until the Civil Rights Act (Macionis, 2019). The only significance of identifying race is estimating certain health risks, but even a century ago, researchers tried to use the ethnic difference to prove some groups’ superiority or inferiority. These false views generated the wrong attitude of people of different races towards each other, resulting in discrimination and conflict. Fortunately, the racial and ethnic variation has resulted in pluralism and assimilation in the U.S. (Macionis, 2019). Still, cases of segregation and genocide are still known to occur sometimes (Macionis, 2019). The reason for such conflicts is numerous myths about social stratification regarding race that persist in some parts of the country. Nevertheless, many are no longer valid because rights are equal for everyone, but opportunities may be distributed unevenly due to economic rather than ethnic differences.
Reference
Macionis, J. J. (2019). Society. The basics (15th ed.). Pearson.