Question

Which of the three components of Donald Noel's (1968) "Noel Hypothesis" do you think is most significant in leading to some type of stratification between different groups? Explain why you feel this is the case. Additionally, do you feel that power and inequality between groups leads to prejudice and discrimination, or does the prejudicial and discriminatory beliefs that groups already have then lead to laws and movements to increase power and equality differences? Briefly explain your position

Answer 1

Out of three conditions that Donald Noel suggest in "Noel Hypothesis", which are ethnocentrism, competition and the differential in power ethnic or racial, I think the most important is competition. Human beings create ranks in ethnic groups by competing. For example when Irish came to America (1820-1860), they competed with other group to gain positions in society and some of them followed the bad way creating the Irish mob and some entered the police force which gave this group a better status then the Italian mob overcome the Irish mob. It is just an example of how ethnic groups compete to survive and society moves into stratification.

I think there is power and inequality between groups and this leads to prejudice and discrimination. The groups that are suffering more are vulnerable groups like women, elderly and children. Here is Peru there is a great problem with women being killed. It is insane but the number of these cases is going up every year. When women go to the police station do denounce their partners, police officers don't pay them attention to what they say and in many cases they don't do anything. Most of the time women are killed by their partners in Peru. Women are afraid to denounce their partners too.