America wasn’t built on equality. It was built on oppression.... and in order for it to work there has to be a hierarchy and someone always has to be at the bottom.
This is one of my favorite books because the author dives deep into exactly how America was founded and formed and how the power structure is sustained.
England didn’t come to "settle" America they sought out to export their poverty.
Colonial America was populated by people the English elites labeled “waste people,” “offscourings,” and the unwanted poor..
After uprisings like Bacon’s Rebellion whiteness was expanded as a privilege to divide the exploited.
Poor whites were elevated, legally and socially, to separate them from Black people. Race was never supposed to replace class it's the tool to hide it.
Whiteness functions as a “status promise,” but for most white individuals, this promise never materializes to enhance their daily lives. Consequently, when people are facing difficulties, it becomes easier to redirect their frustrations outward rather than upward.
Still today you have so called "white Supremacist" and MAGA folks who will literally go out of their way against their own self interest to up hold their imaginary status, because in reality they, too, are stressed, priced out, and exhausted… but instead of that frustration turning into “why is the system like this?”, it gets rerouted into “who can I blame?”
Race and identity get pulled into the center. People end up fighting over culture, politics, and belonging while the more pressing issues like unsustainable wages, inflation, poor access to healthcare, and affordable housing stay untouched and even become weaponized.
As we "celebrate" America on it's 250th Birthday, it's important for us to remember that it hasn’t really changed at all, it just keeps getting older.