Great efforts have been made to decrease the occurrence of racial and ethnic discrimination in American society. The purpose of this research was to investigate the influence of race and ethnicity on socioeconomic status in relation to systematic discrimination in present day society. I hypothesized that persistent disparities exist between racial and ethnic groups with racial and ethnic minorities occupying the disadvantaged or limited positions. To test this hypothesis, data from survey analyses conducted by the US Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and Bureau of Economic Analysis were used to compare socioeconomic characteristics for multiple racial and ethnic groups on a national level across a time period of at least 10 years. The findings support the hypothesis that socioeconomic disparities exist between racial and ethnic groups with Black and Hispanic groups in the disadvantaged position but do not reflect the same outcome for the Asian group. Using the data collected, the subject matter was assessed from the conflict and functionalist perspectives because of the multifaceted nature of the subject, the fact that systematic discrimination has origins connected to the struggle to control resources and their distribution but persists due to latent functioning and changes in social norms, and the divergent results among minority racial and ethnic groups. To address the potential to decrease the socioeconomic disparities between racial and ethnic groups, the benefits of diversity will be discussed as a starting point for practical application throughout American society.