One of the first things I noticed when we moved to TX was that the cheerleaders & football players formed a social inner circle & that everyone outside of it was little people, hoi polloi. I should clarify that this was in 4th grade, kids who were 9-10 years old (these were Optimist athletic teams, not school teams). This stratification was already in place by that age & there was very little transfer into or out of the circle after that, although through jr.high & high school (as other schools fed in & the student body was larger), it mattered less & less. At UT Austin, I am guessing way more than at other schools, the entire Greek system seemed like its purpose was to bring back that 4th grade inner circle feeling, for them anyway.
I’m not so naive to think that US politics has not always protected the interests of the inner circle (even if it promises otherwise), but more and more since 2010-2015, US politics seems centered on (& overt about) a struggle of the inner circle enshrining their status forever.
