Social Stratification Essays (2497 words) - Social Inequality

Social Stratification Social Stratification in South Africa Reba McBride July 29, 2013 Jeremy Bennett SCO 308 Max Weber viewed social stratification from three dimensions: economic class, social status and power (party). According to Weber each of these dimensions had its own stratification: the economic, represented by income and access to goods and services, the social, represented by prestige and honour and the political, represented by power .Unlike Marx Weber paved the way for us to incorporate race and ethnicity dimensions in relation to social stratification. South Africa has always been and still is very much a society divided along racial lines. There has however been a gradual but undeniable shift from a society divided along race under apartheid towards division along economic class post 1994. We can attribute this shift largely to the significant political landscape change but we still need a deeper understanding of the forces driving this shift. This paper will therefore attempt to analyze modern day South African society in relation to Webers model of social stratification with the view establish its validity and relevance in a local context. We are presented by opportunity to perhaps explore impact this shift has had economically. In other words what the impact has been on access to products and services, media, health, education and so forth. The dimension of power and politics was very central to Webers theory, it is therefore natural that we examine the impact the shift from a lily white government to an ANC led regime. According to Weber status honor is normally expressed by the style of life and distinctions can be guaranteed by laws, religion and ethnicity. The penultimate section of this paper will closely examine this dimension and the relevance thereof. Racism and ethnicity is an issue which has ruined the societies and only the African American black skinned people, particularly females have been facing the effects of racism since long. The black skinned females have been tortured by discrimination and racism. (Dovidio,1996). Racism in the United States is a chronic and a pervasive problem that negatively affects individuals, institutions and communities, affecting their favorable functioning and growth in the American society. Racism in America has been portrayed as an expression of controlled institutionalized trends of White power and direct social control serving to subsidiary populace of Color because of their racial group association (Dovidio,1996). Despite the tearing down of racist policies, like segregated schooling, and the realization of policies intended at correcting the disorder of ethnic inequities, such as Affirmative Action, racial discrimination continues to contaminate American society, whether as race-based abho rrence crimes. Social scientists have dedicated a progress of years to value the nature, techniques and possessions of racism (Pierce, 1995). The American system encourages dominance of White Americans in the government structure, judicial systems, and large scale businesses and also in the media, encouraging them with unequal power, dominance and social control, comparative to other race factors. How important is class in modern day South Africa? Very important, I would argue. White South Africans have traditionally derived economic benefit and privilege predominantly on the basis on their ethnicity. By default their race automatically placed them in a superior class position. While there were a very small percentage of black South Africans who were socially upwardly mobile the reality was that being black generally equated to membership in an inferior class. Classes are stratified according to their relations to production and acquisition of goods and services (Weber). Racial discrimination strongly restricted non-whites access to significant economic participation and by default access to certain goods and services pre 1994. We have already established the undeniable shift from race to class in the introduction. Class inequalities in our society are clearly visible, dominant and some argue a possible source for large scale social revolt. The rise of the black middle class h as prompted brands to strategically target that market by positioning themselves accordingly. An obvious example is the presence of billboards advertising high end vehicles and premium alcoholic beverages in townships. So strong is this trend that in a recent radio show, 702 breakfast host John Robbie questioned the relevance of surveys that still segment their findings along racial lines. His words were along this lines why are surveys still conducted along racial