the.com/stratification
Society's way of pretending everyone's equal while sorting them into invisible shelves.
means The arrangement of people, groups, or things into distinct layers or ranks, usually based on status, wealth, or power.
from From Latin stratum, 'something laid down or spread out' (from sternere, 'to spread'), plus facere, 'to make.' Geologists borrowed it first for rock layers settling one atop another over time — then sociologists in the 19th-20th century saw the same quiet piling-up happening in human societies, and the word slid from bedrock to class structure without losing its sense of sediment settling into place.
- geology stole it first
- originally just described rock layers, not people
- caste vs class
- one's rigid by birth, other pretends mobility is possible
- schools reinforce it
- tracking students sorts them before they choose anything
- invisible but measurable
- zip codes predict income better than effort does