The society of the southern US was under the control of wealthy elite landowners with most of the rest of the population scraping by in an essentially pre-industrial economy. This elite managed to grab the richest land when the area was being settled and used slaves to create and run large plantations. The less fortunate whites were pushed into areas that were agriculturally marginal. The farmers in the uplands and mountains had a generous helping of resentment against the wealthy plantation owners. When the civil war came some of those areas such as West Virginia and Kentucky remained in the union. However, once reconstruction had ended the large land owners were able to exert control over most of the south and operate a controlling oligarchy over poor whites and the black former slaves. Their most potent political tool was keeping poor whites and poor blacks set against each other by fanning the flames of racism. The recurring meme was that black men were a threat to the virtue of white women. On many occasions that was the issue that set off lynchings. While the civil rights movement of the 1960s began to dismantle the legally enforceable structures of segregation and voting restriction, the deeply infused racism is still with us.
What I want to look at here is the notion that we can see a diffused version of keeping racism alive in order to dispel threats to the financial elite and their growing concentration and control of the nation's economic resources. The people who think that American society has reached some sort of post racial state where racism is just something that black people make up as an excuse are most certainly not going to be persuaded by anything that I have to say. I am not talking to them. I am talking to people both black and white who are groping for an understanding of what looks like a society that is becoming more polarized in various respects.
We are presently waiting anxiously for the grand jury decision on whether to indict Darren Wilson in the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson MO. Since preparations are being made for mass demonstrations with the national guard already called out, the working assumption appears to be that he won't be indicted. I certainly find that plausible. We have seen this situation over and over again. The police beat and/or kill an unarmed black man and a large portion of American society applauds them for keeping them safe from the threat posed by black men. That really seems to me to have a lot in common with the way things were done in the land of cotton.
The nation's prisons are crammed with inmates of color far out of proportion to their representation in the general population. Many white people unquestioningly accept that that demonstrates that they are much more likely than white people to commit crimes. This assumption doesn't hold up to a broad body of research into the workings of the criminal justice system. In areas such as drug related offences there appears to be about an equal probability of whites and people of color engaging in illegal behavior. There is however, a much greater probability that the POC will get sent to prison for it.
The US continues to have racially segregated housing patterns. A majority of middle class white people live in suburbs with very small non-white populations. Most of these communities have fairly low crime rates. It is what can accurately be described as racialized space. Trayvon Martin was a classic example of a black teenager who was "guilty" of trespassing on this space. From the widespread reactions to his murder as something necessary to protect the people who lived there, it is clear just how deeply they have been indoctrinated by the notion that black men pose an ever present threat even when there really aren't very many of them around.
All of this and the role that the police play in maintaining it, are very deeply wired into the system. The country can be divided between the people who believe the fear inducing hype and those that don't. Looking beyond that we should ask an important question. Who benefits from having the deck stacked in this manner. It is most certainly not the people of color. In reality the lives of most white people aren't threatened by black men anymore that they are by Muslim terrorist. Yet it is so easy for the media and political figures to stir up the fear and panic. It is my view that the economic elite benefit by having a populace that are diverted from asking questions about things like rising economic inequality and declining living standards for the bulk of the population. It is more complex and done in a more sophisticated manner than the way things operated in a town in Alabama or Mississippi, but I think that it basically serves the same purpose.