ABSTRACT
Race is generally treated as an input in the American stratification system. People are assumed to be identifiable as members of distinct racial populations and subject to differential treatment based on this presumed membership. Those belonging to valued populations receive greater access to the resources and rewards of society, on average, than do those from devalued populations (Massey 2007). Because membership in these populations is assigned partly by ancestry and/or is based on readily observable and heritable physical features, the hierarchy of social positions can be passed on generation after generation, resulting in relatively low levels of mobility (Tilly 1998). Indeed, despite several decades of attempts to ameliorate racial inequality in the United States, large gaps in social, physical, mental, and material well-being remain, particularly between Americans of African origin and everyone else (Fischer and Hout 2006).
