Racial hierarchy is defined as a system of stratification that focuses on the belief that some racial groups are either superior or inferior to other racial groups.[1] The groups with the most power and authority are at the top of the racial hierarchy, while the most inferior group is at the bottom. As it pertains to the United States of America, racial hierarchy refers to ranking of different races/ethnic groups, based on physical and perceived characteristics that have been perpetuated through legal and political policy, providing unfair advantages for some races and/or hindering the advancement of others.
As the population of the United States continues to become less diverse with the blending of races, the European-American majority will likely begin looking for competent allies to recognize with and continue to sit on top of the hierarchy. People of European descent have allowed previously “colored” (as they were recognized in early censuses) peoples to assimilate once they have proven their worth but more importantly have the correct skin pigmentation. Early Italian immigrants were seen as colored and looked at as a lower race upon arriving to the United States during the Industrial Revolution.[4] Not until they were able to separate themselves from free Northern African-Americans and establish themselves in the community where they treated as white.[4] Herbert Gans suggests a transformation from the dual racial hierarchy seen today in the United States of European vs. non-European, to African vs. non-African.