Relationships within the American society are predetermined by both race and social class. It is a normal situation that people easily get along with individuals of the same social environment which are determined by occupation, income, residence, education, hobbies and other activities. At the same time, many people treat individuals of a different race hostile. Perhaps, they do not judge on a different skin color or uncharacteristic facial features. People are more concerned about social position and positive reputation of their environment.
Belonging to certain social class is characteristic to people of every particular race. According to the common belief, higher social classes are occupied mainly by Caucasians, while African Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic frequently stretch from the middle class to the extremely poor. In fact, people of any skin color have no guarantee from running down into poverty, but African Americans are much more vulnerable to recession.
Social stratification enhances localization of people belonging to one and the same social class. Discovering racial segregation in big cities, we will see that areas, where racial minorities concentrate, are the poorest areas in big cities. The class mobility of these people is rather low: few households can find their way out of poverty, but people of the middle class are can run down in debts.
Despite the decrease of racial discrimination in the workplace, employers cannot hire many people of color because of insufficient education or skills. The level of education directly depends on the social class as poor parents cannot enroll their children in a good private school.