TITLE:
Structural Stratification, Ethnic Incorporation, and Institutional Access: A Sociological and Historical Analysis of the American Professional Hierarchy
AUTHORS:
Sanjoy Mukhopadhyay
KEYWORDS:
Structural Stratification, Jewish Americans, Institutional Incorporation, Workplace Inequality, Racial Triangulation, Professional Hierarchy, Antisemitism, Organizational Sociology, Meritocracy, Sponsorship
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.14 No.10,
October
28,
2026
ABSTRACT: The contemporary American professional workplace remains structured by historical stratification mechanisms that govern recruitment, cultural capital evaluation, executive sponsorship, and institutional mobility. This paper provides a sociological and organizational analysis of how structural advantages operate within corporate, legal, and financial institutions. It investigates the dynamics of homosocial reproduction, evaluative subjectivity in “cultural fit,” and the unearned baseline of competence routinely conferred upon dominant demographic groups. The analysis situates these dynamics within the historical evolution of racial classification in the United States, tracing how previously marginalized European immigrant groups—specifically Jewish Americans—transitioned from severe institutional exclusion and quota regimes in the early twentieth century to structural incorporation in the post-World War II period. Utilizing middleman minority theory, racial triangulation frameworks, and historical institutionalism, this paper examines how dominant hierarchies adaptively absorb select minority cohorts to stabilize organizational equilibrium and reinforce meritocratic legitimations while leaving foundational power distributions intact. Finally, the study explores the fragility of contingent inclusion, the persistence of dormant antisemitic tropes during macroeconomic volatility, and the limitations of binary corporate diversity paradigms, concluding with actionable, evidence-based structural interventions for equitable organizational design.