Institutional Racism

Another example is the Indigenous Australians of Groote Eylandt and Bickerton Island,
off the coast of Arnhem Land, who have arranged their entire society—spiritually and
economically—around a kind of gift economy called renunciation. According to David H.
Turner, in this arrangement, every person is expected to give everything of any
resource they have to any other person who needs or lacks it at the time. This has the
benefit of largely eliminating social problems like theft and relative poverty. However,
misunderstandings obviously arise when attempting to reconcile Aboriginal renunciative
economics with the competition/scarcity-oriented economics introduced to Australia by
Anglo-European colonists.
Variables in theory and Research
The social status variables underlying social stratification are based in social
perceptions and attitudes about various characteristics of persons and peoples. While
many such variables cut across time and place, the relative weight placed on each
variable and specific combinations of these variables will differ from place to place over
time. One task of research is to identify accurate mathematical models that explain how
these many variables combine to produce stratification in a given society. Grusky (2011)
provides a good overview of the historical development of sociological theories of social
stratification and a summary of contemporary theories and research in this field. While
many of the variables that contribute to an understanding of social stratification have
long been identified, models of these variables and their role in constituting social
stratification are still an active topic of theory and research. In general, sociologists
recognize that there are no "pure" economic variables, as social factors are integral to
economic value. However, the variables posited to affect social stratification can be
loosely divided into economic and other social factors.
Economic
Strictly quantitative economic variables are more useful to describing social stratification
than explaining how social stratification is constituted or maintained. Income is the most
common variable used to describe stratification and associated economic inequality in a
society. However, the distribution of individual or household accumulation
of surplus and wealth tells us more about variation in individual well-being than does
income, alone. Wealth variables can also more vividly illustrate salient variations in the
well-being of groups in stratified societies. Gross Domestic Product (GDP),
especially per capita GDP, is sometimes used to describe economic inequality and
stratification at the international or global level.
Social
Social variables, both quantitative and qualitative, typically provide the most explanatory
power in causal research regarding social stratification, either as independent variables
or as intervening variables. Three important social variables include gender, race,
and ethnicity, which, at the least, have an intervening effect on social status and
stratification in most places throughout the world. Additional variables include those that
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