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Caribbean Social Stratification

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Sociologists use the term social stratification to refer to a society’s classification of its people into rankings of socioeconomic conditions based on aspects such as religion, income, race, education, and family background. In today’s modern world, three main systems of social stratification still exist: slavery, caste system and class system. The Caribbean stratification system has been influenced by its history of Colonialism, Plantation Slavery and Indentureship. Although, most of the islands are currently politically independent, I believe the heritage of the region continues to influence our current social structure. Slavery is a system of stratification in which one person is the property of another and the slave is controlled, influenced …show more content…

The Caribbean offers a diverse race to the region; predominantly African and Indian yet many of us are still affected daily by the saying “if your brown stick around, if your white it’s alright and if your black stay to the back”. In Trinidad, people are still subjected to different qualities of treatment because of their complexion/race. Trinidad’s current society shows that light-skinned black people are still the desired population. They are most likely to attain high-status jobs and be perceived as attractive. Historically, the stereotyping of people based on skin color, facial features and hair quality were used as factors to evaluate an individual. The closer the resemblance of these features to Europeans the better the individual chances to achieve acceptance and upward mobility. During slavery, the light-skinned and mixed ancestry persons were exposed and refined to what was considered proper communication, clothing and manners via their constant interaction with the white planters. Consequently, light-skinned black people were adopted into upper class and were offered better chances than their darker counterparts and therefore established higher socioeconomic status. Presently, these conceptions are still prevalent in today’s society and are …show more content…

In a class system, an individual place in the social system is based on earned or chosen achieved statuses such as level of education, career and spouse. In Trinidad and Tobago despite there may be segregation based on race, ethnicity and religion, individuals are free to move up and down in the social rankings and set their social positions based on achievements. Trinidadians are open to choose their career paths despite what part of Trinidad they are born or who their parents are. Universities now offer flexible part time and online courses therefore individuals no longer need to bear the constraint of paying loans to achieve a degree. In today’s modern society goals and achievements are more

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