Capitalism depends on convincing exploited groups to blame each other for their suffering as away of deflecting attention from the actions of the oppressors. Its most successful strategy has been creating & weaponising the idea of racial hierarchy.
Social scientist and historian WEB Du Bois, the first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard, spelled this out in 1935:
‘…the racial order required by capitalism could only be maintained if white elites successfully manipulated the white masses against their class alliances with other races. … Convincing poor white farmers to side with the wealthy land owners they otherwise begrudged required posing newly enfranchised African Americans as a threat to even the lowest white man’s standing.’
It worked.
Evidence shows that white people whose livelihoods are threatened by profiteering capitalists are still easily persuaded to locate their identity in an imagined superiority over a racialised ‘other’ - & often a gendered ‘other’ as well - instead of identifying their common interests with others who are being exploited.
All these years & we still fall for it.
This slice of American history is very relevant to Australia now.
#AusPol #history #RacialHeirarchy #DivideAndRule #capitalism #plunder #exploitation #history #sociology
https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/ng-interactive/2026/jun/21/american-racial-anxiety-white-working-class-rights?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
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