Use Racism to Divide and Conquer
Malcolm X told us “You can’t have capitalism without racism.” Frederick Douglass said, “They divided both to conquer each.” Racism is the most important tool used by the top 1 percent to keep workers divided and thus protect their power, pointed out SocialistWorker.org writer, Phil Gasper. He wrote that in throughout U.S. history “poor whites and enslaved Blacks would often joining forces to fight against their common masters, ruling classes responded by passing slave codes to discipline Blacks, while offering privileges to poor whites.” White privilege “allows space — demands space — for the perpetuation of racist systems,” wrote Kirsten West Savali in a 2014 Damemagazine.com article.
Disguise Oligarchy as Democracy
While many in the U.S. would consider themselves ruled under a democracy, a recent study by Princeton University Prof Martin Gilens and Northwestern University Prof Benjamin I Page concluded that that economic elites and groups representing business interests have the most impact on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.
According to the researchers, a proposed policy change with low support among economically elite Americans (one-out-of-five in favor) is adopted only about 18 percent of the time, while a proposed change with high support (four-out-of-five in favor) is adopted about 45 percent of the time.
“On the other hand, when a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose. Even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policies that would help to eradicate racism, they aren’t likely to be enacted,” according to Gilens and Page’s research.
