Your comment reminds me of this story told by Bill Moyers about LBJ: We were in Tennessee. During the motorcade, he spotted some ugly racial epithets scrawled

Your comment reminds me of this story told by Bill Moyers about LBJ: We were in Tennessee. During the motorcade, he spotted some ugly racial epithets scrawled on signs. Late that night in the hotel, when the local dignitaries had finished the last bottles of bourbon and branch water and departed, he started talking about those signs. “I’ll tell you what’s at the bottom of it,” he said. “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.” It makes sense today, too. If the wealthy can convince the poor that their hardships are caused by immigrants, then the newly poor won't consider how much of their previous wealth is being concentrated in a few hands.