Free Social Stratification MCQs with Answers

• A. does not include environmental racism
• B. occurs because equality of opportunity causes equality of outcome
• C. occurs in part when gatekeepers admit others like themselves to positions of privilege prestige and power
• D. none of the above

Explanation: Institutional discrimination can occur when organisational rules or gatekeepers reproduce privilege, including by selecting people similar to themselves. Environmental racism is also commonly treated as a form of institutional or structural discrimination, so option c is the best answer.

• A. can also be termed racial reconciliation
• B. is the same as traditional racial prejudice
• C. is a reflection of whites concern that further reductions in racial inequality will result in loss of the special status that whites in the United States have enjoyed over the years
• D. has no impact on whites racial policy attitudes

Explanation: Symbolic racism is a contemporary, indirect form of racial prejudice that often appears as opposition to further equality measures and concern over losing historically privileged status. It is therefore different from openly expressed traditional prejudice and can influence racial policy attitudes.

• A. Racial and ethnic groups often have the potential for carving out their own independent nations from the existing state
• B. Racial and ethnic stratification is harder to eliminate than are other forms of stratification
• C. All other forms of stratification grow out of racial and ethnic stratification
• D. All of the above

Explanation: Unlike many stratification systems, racial and ethnic divisions may involve claims to territory and the formation of a separate nation or state. The other options make sweeping claims that are not generally valid for every society or form of stratification.

• A. are groups identified on cultural grounds
• B. are based solely on nationality
• C. occupy a small territory
• D. unlike racial groups are socially constructed

Explanation: An ethnic group is identified through shared cultural features such as language, religion, ancestry, customs or historical experience. Ethnicity is not based solely on nationality, territory or a biological distinction from race.

• A. migration
• B. globalization
• C. colonialism
• D. diaspora

Explanation: A diaspora is the dispersal of a people from an original homeland to other regions, often through forced displacement. Migration is the broader term for movement and does not necessarily involve an ethnic population or forced dispersal.

• A. classic
• B. colonial
• C. guest worker
• D. illegal

Explanation: The guest-worker model admits migrants temporarily to fill labour needs, generally without granting full citizenship or permanent membership. This distinguishes it from classic immigration models that usually allow settlement and eventual citizenship.

• A. critical race theory
• B. conflict theories
• C. ethnocentrism
• D. primordialism

Explanation: Critical race theory treats racism as embedded in ordinary institutions and everyday social practices rather than as an unusual departure from a normally non-racist system. The other options do not specifically make this structural and everyday claim.

• A. cults of the capital
• B. capital culture
• C. cultural capital
• D. culpable capturePeople & Society

Explanation: Bourdieu used cultural capital for valued knowledge, language styles, qualifications and cultural competencies that help reproduce class advantage across generations. The other phrases are not his established concept.

• A. cultural reproduction
• B. passive consumption
• C. conceptual abstraction
• D. formal communication

Explanation: Cultural reproduction describes how schools pass on existing class-based advantages, values and cultural resources, thereby helping inequalities continue across generations. It is a key criticism of the view that education is automatically an equalizer.

• A. skill
• B. talent
• C. capacity
• D. ability

Explanation: Gillborn and Youdell argued that the category of ability had replaced older IQ-based language in many UK schools, while still allowing schools to sort and ration students. Ability therefore became a socially influential substitute for IQ.