Social Class Affiliation and Ethnic Prejudice* A. LEON ROSENBLUM San Fernando Valley State College, Northridge, U.S.A. DESPITE T

Social Class Affiliation and

Ethnic Prejudice*

A. LEON ROSENBLUM

San Fernando Valley State College, Northridge, U.S.A.

DESPITE the progress in the social class concept there exists a dearth of consensus in the field of social stratification. The disagreement embraces every phase of the field; its concept, methodology and findings.' Students of stratification approach the study of social class phenomena in a variety of ways ranging from the subjective point of view defining social class as a feeling of belonging or consciousness of kind, to assessing class membership by a set of objective criteria employing such indices as socioeconomic status, occupation, income, possession, education, dwelling type and/or style of life.2 Centers, for instance, used a closed ended question to ascertain the place in the hierarchy of social classes acknowlegded by the respondents. He also phrased the ques- tions in an hypothetical manner as follows: "If you were asked to use one of these four names for your social class, which would you say you belonged in... a"3 It is maintained that in the first instance, the respondent has no chance to ex- press his feelings about social class in general and checks one of the ready answers of the question arbitrarily; and in the latter instance, when a respondent answers an hypothetical question, his answer may be in a detached manner and does not feel self involvement. In both instances the answers may not reflect the true feelings of the respondent. On the other extreme lies the evaluation of the objective criteria as suggested by Warner, et al, in which case the subjects are

* The author is greatly indebted to the many persons, including the interviewers, who cooperated with him during the course of the research and made this study possible. Great appreciation is hereby expressed to Edward C. McDonagh and Melvin J. Vincent for their many helpful suggestions and constructive criticisms. Special thanks to Harvey J. Locke for a critical reading of the paper. 1 For different findings as to the number of existing classes, see Richard Centers, The Psychologyof SocialClasses, Princeton : Princeton University Press, 1949 :August B. Hollings- head, Elmtown's Youth : The Impact of Social Classes on Adolescents,New York : Harper and Bros., 1947; W. Lloyd Warner, Marchia Meeker, and Kenneth Eells, Social Class in America :A Manual of Procedure forthe Measurementof SocialStatus, Chicago : Science Research, Associates, Inc., 1949; John Useem, Pierre Tangent, and Ruth Useem, "Stratification in Prairie Town," AmericanSociological Review, 7 (June, 1942), pp. 331-342. 2 It is not implied here that one approach is more objective than the other in the scientific sense. For a discussion of the objective and subjective approaches, see Richard T. Morris, "Social Stratification," in Leonard Broom and Philip Selznick, Sociology,Evanston, Row, Petersen & Co., 1955, pp. 167-192. 3 Richard Centers, op. cit., p. 76. 246 assigned a particular class category by the researcher. This approach seems to be questionable as to the purpose this knowledge serves social science since at first blush it is only the assessment of the scientist and not the acknowledged placement of the class structure on the part of the respondents. The methodology also varies from employing the mailed questionnaire technique, informal or structured interviews, participant observation approach, to rating and ranking procedures.' This lack of consensus2 forces every researcher to define his particular brand of the social class concept; the result being a Babel of concepts which, in turn, are reciprocated with a barrage of criticism, as Pfautz states: "Probably no area of current sociological interest suffers no much from the disease of overconceptualization (as that of class and stratification) "'3 As a result, the class concept appears vague in definition to the point where it is 4 even thought of as non-existent.4 General agreement seems to have been accomplished on one point in the social class phenomena, and that is: differences in social class affiliation should have a bearing on differential social behavior. It is generally agreed that without the distinction of differential behavior on the part of the different segments of society there would be no purpose in its study.5 A corollary disagreement centers around the interpretation of findings that the class structure

1 Cf. James West, Plainville, U.S.A., New York : Columbia University Press, 1945 : August B. Hollingshead, op. cit.; Richard Centers, op. cit.; Thomas E. Lasswell, "A Study of Social Stratification Using an Area Sample of Raters," American SociologicalReview, 19 (June, 1954), pp. 310-313; Robert A. Ellis, "Social Stratification and Social Relations...," AmericanSociological Review, 22 (October, 1957), pp. 570-578. 2 The concept of class is dealt with by some sociologists in terms of a psychological feeling of belonging and by others as a definite objective measure. To Maclver and Page, for example, social classes are "group-conscious segments of the community" in terms of prestige; for Centers, they are "psychosocial groupings"; others define social class in terms of occupations, status, esteem, or political power. For major different points of view, see: R. M. Maclver and Charles H. Page, Society :An IntroductoryAnalysis, New York: Rinehart & Co., 1949, esp. pp. 348-383; Richard Centers, op. cit.; August B. Hollingshead, op. cit. ; W. Lloyd Warner, et al., op. cit. ; Paul K. Hatt, "Occupation and Social Strati- fication," AmericanSociological Review, 15 (April, 1950), pp. 216-222. 3 Harold W. Pfautz, "The Current Literature On Social Stratification," AmericanJournal of Sociology,58 (January, 1953), pp. 392. 4 Cr. Robert A. Nisbet, "The Decline and Fall of Social Class," in Abstracts of Papers, American Sociological Society Convention, 1958, p. 82; for a discussion of whether the class concept is simply an heuristic device, see Seymour M. Lipset and Reinhard Bendix, "Social Status and Social Structure," British Journal of Sociology,II (1951), pp. 230-254; Llewellyn Gross, "The Use of Class Concepts in Sociological Research," AmericanJournal of Sociology,54 (December, 1949), pp. 409-421. 5 Cf. Logan Wilson and William L. Kolb, SociologicalAnalysis, Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York, 1949, p. 431 1 for.Kingsley ; Davis, "A Conceptual Analysis of Stratification," AmericanSociological Review, 7 (June, 1942), pp. 309-321; Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore, "Some Principles of Stratification," AmericanSociological Review, 10 (April, 1945), pp. 242-249; John Useem, Pierre Tangent, and Ruth Useem, op. cit. The mere fact that all stratification studies evaluate some one or more behavior patterns is witness to this agreement.