Sarah Colegrove September 16, 2011 Reflection Notes 1 When humanity first began and was is in it's primitive

stages of growth, there was little worry of social inequality, stratification, and the like. Humanity was too busy worrying about survival finding food, shelter, and continuing the reproduction of society. As humanity began to grow and settle, inequalities and stratification began to come into being and grow. Life became more than just survival and some, because of the inequalities, rose above the others. Kerbo defines social inequality as the condition whereby people have unequal access to valued resources, services, and positions in society. He illustrated social inequality with the stories of Michael and David. The stories of David and Michael also demonstrate social stratification in action. Social stratification is when inequality is institutionalized, and there is a system of social relationships that determines who gets what, and why. David was born into a family of immense wealth and privilege, as such he was spared from the hardships of life and had access to just about everything in life that he could imagine wanting. He did not lack and what he did receive was of the best. Michael on the other hand was born into poverty and as such he has struggled all of his life to escape from the poverty and lack of resources that surrounded him. Because of the circumstances of early life, Michael was not only not given equal accesses to resources in life, he had to witness and endure some of the worst that life had to offer. Because of the social inequality and stratification that permeates life in American, Michael and David lived extremely different lives. Michael and David's life stories also exemplify the rigidity of stratification and degree of crystallization in American life. The rigidity of stratification is shown by how much Michael and

David's position in life changed from their births until their deaths. David was born into the advantages of economics, race, power, culture, society, honor, educational opportunities, and health or access to medical care. Michael however was born into the disadvantages of economics, race, power, culture, society, honor, education, and health or access to medical care. The American social system was proven to be very rigid when David did not lose his advantages and Michael was not able to gain advantages. The stories of David and Michael also showed high degrees of crystallization in society. David was a white male who was a billionaire that was highly educated, often offered political positions of power, became a highly respected and sought after businessman who had access to the upper society functions and access to the best medical facilities. On the other hand while Michael was male he was also black, very poor, was not highly educated, unskilled worker, arrested on multiple occasions, did not know his father and lost his mother when he was very young, and if he had access to medical facilities they were far from the best and it is doubtful that he would be able to pay for any medical care.