Global Stratification: Race
• 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.
• 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.
• Contain 58% of the world’s people
• Receive 18% of global income
• Have a standard of living about average with
• Include 72 nations, Eastern
Europe, Peru, Brazil, Namibia, Egypt, Indonesia, In
dia, People’s Republic of China
• Contain 19% of the world’s people
• Receive 2% of the global income
• Have a low standard of living due to limited
• Include 57 nations, Central and East Africa and
Asia, Chad, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
“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.
• 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 Gates
2. Warren Buffett
3. Carlos Slim Heru
Each worth more than $35 billion, they have more
wealth than the world’s 34 poorest countries.
• All societies contain relative poverty, but low-income
countries face absolute poverty:
Worldwide, about 1.4 billion people are at rick for poor
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
• 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
• 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
• 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: 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
• 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)
• Nations attain affluence by technology
• Cultures must encourage innovation
Believes high-income countries assist in:
• Controlling population increase through birth control
• Increase food production through green “technology”
• Introduce industrialization and jobs
• Provide foreign aid
• 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
Dependency involves (3) factors:
1. Narrow export economies
2. Lack of industrial capacity
3. 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
• Dependency theory sees rich nations as the cause of global
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
• Society defines what race is
1. Biological; what we look like
2. Social; how we act, talk and/or dress
3. 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
• 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
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, a
nd/or ideological arenas.
• EXERCISE: review pg. 368-
376 especially National Map
Race is Used as a Method to Stratify Society
Which Creates Racism
How Racism Works:
Isolate Small Group Covert
Past-in-Present Side Effect
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
• 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
• 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:
2. Side Effect
Counter Argument to 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
• 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
• Minimization of Racism: Denial of structural character of
discrimination viewed as limited, sporadic and declining in