Global Stratification: Race

Tiffany BuchananSOC100

Global Stratification

• High-income countries: nations with the highest overall standard of living.

• Middle-income countries: nations with a standard of living about average for the world as a whole.

• Low-income countries: nations with a low standard of living in which most people are poor.

High-income Countries• Contain 22% of the world’s people

• Receive 80% of global income

• Have a high standard of living rooted in technology

• Produce enough goods for people to lead comfortable lives

• Includes 66 nations: U.S., Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Western Europe, Israel, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Russian Federation, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Australia.

Middle-income Countries

• Contain 58% of the world’s people

• Receive 18% of global income

• Have a standard of living about average with world

• Include 72 nations, Eastern Europe, Peru, Brazil, Namibia, Egypt, Indonesia, India, People’s Republic of China

Low-income Countries

• Contain 19% of the world’s people

• Receive 2% of the global income

• Have a low standard of living due to limited technology

• Include 57 nations, Central and East Africa and Asia, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.

Global Stratification

“Although poverty is a reality in the United States and other nations, the greatest social inequality is not within nations but between them.” (324)

• The richest 20% of the U.S. populations earn 48% of national income.• The richest 20% of global population earn 74% of world income.• The poorest 20% of the U.S. population earn 4% of national income.• The poorest fifth of global population earn 2% of global income.• The richest 20% of world individuals own 90% of global wealth.• Half of global wealth is owned by 2% of world individuals.• Poorest half of individuals own barely 1% of global wealth.

Global Stratification• The richest 20% of the world individuals earn almost 40

times as those in the poorest 20%.

• In 2008, (3) wealthiest global individuals:1. Bill Gates2. Warren Buffett3. Carlos Slim Heru

Each worth more than $35 billion, they have more wealth than the world’s 34 poorest countries.

Global Poverty• All societies contain relative poverty, but low-income countries

face absolute poverty:

Worldwide, about 1.4 billion people are at rick for poor nutrition.

About 9 million people, mostly children, die yearly from diseases of poverty.

Globally, women are more likely to be poor.

About 200 million men, women, children (3% of humanity) live in conditions described as slavery.

Types of Global Slavery• Chattel slavery: one person owns another. About 20 million people fit this category,

buying and selling of slaves takes place in Asia, Middle East and Africa.

• Child slavery: desperately poor families send their children to do whatever to survive. About 100 million children fit this category, taking place in Latin America and Africa.

• Debt bondage: employer pays worker wages not enough to cover food and housing.

• Servile forms of marriage: families marry off women against their will, ending up as slaves, prostitutes by patriarchy.

• Human trafficking: forced, enslaved labor by organized crime, second only to gun and drug trafficking globally.

Poverty Theoretical Justifications

“Why so much poverty?”

• Technological lag• High birth rates• Tradition oriented, resist change of “progress”• Distribute wealth poorly (ex: In Brazil, 75% of

farmland owned by 4%)• Oppression of women oppressed generations• Result of colonialism

Global Poverty

• Colonialism: the process by which some nations enrich themselves through political and economic control of other nations.

• Neocolonialism: a new form of global power relationships that involves not direct political control but economic exploitation by multinational corporations.

• Multinational corporations: a large business that operates in many countries.

Colonial History of Global Economics

• Late 15th century Europeans established colonies, a century ago they controlled 1/4th of global land.

• The U.S. originally was a collection of small British colonies on the East coast, soon purchasing Alaska, and taking Haiti, Puerto Rico, Guam, Philippines, Hawaii, part of Panama and Guantanamo Bay Cuba.

• Brutality of colonialism is found in the African slave trade beginning about 1500-1850, controlled most of the African continent until early 1960’s.

[see Figure 12-4, p. 316]

Global Stratification Theory

• Modernization theory: a model of economic and social development that explains global inequality in terms of technological and cultural differences. (structural-functionialism)

• Dependency theory: a model of economic and social development that explains global inequality in terms of the historical exploitation of poor nations by rich ones. (social-conflict)

Modernization Theory• Nations attain affluence by technology• Cultures must encourage innovation

Believes high-income countries assist in:

• Controlling population increase through birth control “technology”

• Increase food production through green “technology”• Introduce industrialization and jobs• Provide foreign aid

Dependency Theory• Colonial process helped enrich some and impoverish

others, economic positions are linked.

• Poor nations are not simply lagging behind rich nations on the path to progress, exploitation is acceptable economics.

Dependency involves (3) factors:1. Narrow export economies2. Lack of industrial capacity3. Foreign debt (poor nations owe rich over 3 trillion)

Modernization v Dependency• Modernization theory assumes that all of the world was poor

before the Industrial Revolution and that some nations were able to become rich.

• Modernization theory sees rich nations as a solution to the problem of poverty.

• Dependency theory assumes that today’s poor countries were actually better off before colonialism drained them of their wealth.

• Dependency theory sees rich nations as the cause of global poverty.

Let’s Now Consider the Notion of Race:

What is it?Does it exist?

What is it used for?

What is Race?

• A century ago, scientists divided up the world population racially as; Caucasoid, Negroid, Mongoloid.

• Race is a social construct therefore “WE” create and recreate it

• Society defines what race is1. Biological; what we look like2. Social; how we act, talk and/or dress3. Cultural; food, religion and/or music

• Race is an ethical idea

How does Race exist?

• Race is a reflexive reality because we are only selves in relation to other people.

• You can not know what the difference is between say whiteness

and blackness if there isn’t some well defined clear interpretation of what the norm and standard is (i.e. the reflexive reality).

• Race is a rather new social phenomenon that only came to exist with the rise of Europe and colonialism.

• Racial definitions became an easy bureaucratic instrument for social stratification.

Hmmm….So Does Race Exist?

• Blue: You have historically made the rules and the rules you make allow you to continue making the rules. You own the major sources of capital in the society, and are fully protected by the legal system. Overall, you have a great deal of wealth, power and influence.

• Red: You have been denied permanent residence in the society, and you don’t speak the Blue’s language. You perform the worst jobs for very low pay. You have no legal rights at all. You are considered dirty and ignorant by others.

• Green: You were once forced through fear and physical restraint to defer to Blue’s, although you organized and claimed some Green power, as a group you are still largely restricted to low income, high crime living areas. You are legally protected, however you are often the victims of racial profiling. You are considered lazy and criminal by most other groups.

• Orange: You have been forced to live together in designated areas by the Blues. Your group is poor, has low educational attainment and low income. Your legal protection is poorly enforced. Your group has a high incidence of substance abuse. Other groups consider you pathetic.

• Pink: Your group was once used as cheap labor, but you are now valued as intelligentsia. You can get good jobs, but you are socially ostracized by Blues and others. Many of you still live in ghettoized areas. You are protected legally, but enforcement varies according to income of the pinks. You are considered suspicious and untrustworthy.

How Else Do We Know Races Exist?

• A society is considered “racialized” when there is a clear hierarchy of advantage, privilege and/or disadvantage based on race found within social, economic, political, and/or ideological arenas.

• EXERCISE: review pg. 368-376 especially National Map 14-3

White

Asian or Latino

Indigenous or African American

Race is Used as a Method to Stratify Society

Which Creates Racism

How Racism Works:

Racism

Prejudice

Stereotypes

Discrimination

Isolate Small Group Covert Institutionalized Discrimination

IndirectInstitutionalized

Past-in-Present Side Effect

DirectInstitutionalized

Forms of Discrimination

• Isolate: When the actions of one or two group members of a dominant group have the intent to harm members of a subordinate group but this behavior is not socially accepted by society.

• Small group: This form of discrimination is just like “isolate” except it is composed of a small group rather than individuals.

• Covert: This form of discrimination also has the intention to harm but it’s done in secrecy.

Forms of Institutionalized Discrimination

• Direct Institutionalized: Is a form of discrimination that is a part of everyday life, with an intent to harm and it is socially accepted.

• Indirect Institutionalized: Is a form of discrimination that is also a part of everyday life and is socially accepted but it has no intent to harm.

(2) Forms of Indirect Institutionalized:1. Past-in-Present2. Side Effect

Counter Argument to Discrimination

Reverse Discrimination

Rationalizations for Racism

• Abstract Liberalism: Abstract principles of liberalism of liberalism to racial matters (i.e. “Race should not be a factor when judging people”).

• Biologization of Culture: Cultural rationalizations for explaining minorities statues in society (i.e. “Blacks are lazy”).

• Naturalization of Racial Matters: Naturalization of matters that reflect the effects of the racial order (i.e. explaining segregation as a natural occurrence).

• Minimization of Racism: Denial of structural character of discrimination viewed as limited, sporadic and declining in significance.

Color of Fear

Who Do You Fear?