Ascribed status overrides achieved status even for celebrated Black Americans

Evidence

Ascribed status runs counter to the modern belief that individuals should forge their own way in life and reap the subsequent rewards. Despite democratic ideals and “free” markets, ascribed status categories still linger in society. Heredity remains powerful: the children of high-status families, whether noble princes or pathetic failsons, emerge at the top of the ladder before they can crawl. Racism is a toxic form of ascribed status that fixes social position to skin color. In Caste, author Isabel Wilkerson argues that discrimination in the United States against people of African descent is so codified and punishing as to mirror the caste system of Indian society. From slavery to Jim Crow to interactions in daily life today, Black Americans in the “subordinate caste” have been denied “respect, status, honor, attention, privileges, resources, benefit of the doubt, and human kindness.” Basketball player LeBron James, who polls year after year as one of America’s most admired men, told reporters, “No matter how great you become in life, no matter how wealthy you become, how people worship you, what you do, if you are an African-American man or African-American woman, you will always be that.” — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 81

Categorization

• XREF: Wilkerson’s Caste and sociological work on status ascription; connects to the reader’s broad reading on race and social stratification. — connects to: Achieved status only became possible in the modern age, replacing ascribed birth status — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 79; The civil-rights era raised ethnic statuses without reordering the ethnic hierarchy; Achieved status remains heavily dependent on ascribed group membership — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3161 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Exceptional individual Black achievers are absorbed as exceptions rather than refuting racist doctrine #exemplifies (0.90) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 250
• Achieved status remains heavily dependent on ascribed group membership #expands (0.86) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3161
• Race fixes status by ancestry while ethnicity permits negotiated identity #expands (0.80) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 391
• Systemic reverse-discrimination beliefs trace to any black besting a white regardless of merit #corroborates (0.79)
• The civil-rights era raised ethnic statuses without reordering the ethnic hierarchy #qualifies (0.78)
• Ethnicity emerged as a status upgrade over race for Europeans #qualifies (0.76)
• Black elite status depended on the welfare of the whole black population #complicates (0.73)
• Americans habitually mask racial views behind expressed commitment to equality #complicates (0.72) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 160