Ep. 4: Why Elites Invented Racism to Divide Workers

Welcome to The Social Fabric Unraveled. In this bite-sized episode, host Adam Crenshaw breaks down how the modern ideology of racism was deliberately engineered by wealthy landowners in colonial America. Fearing that a united working class of white indentured servants, enslaved Africans, and Indigenous people could rebel and overthrow them, the elite property-owning minority (less than 5% of the population) introduced racism as a "divide and rule" strategy. By offering poor white workers a false sense of racial superiority, elites successfully fractured labor alliances, entrenched racialized slavery, and secured their own power and profits.📚 Source Material for this Episode: • Muiu, M. (2020). AG Module 2: In The Beginning: Indigenous America [Audio lectures & PowerPoint]. • Frontline Club. Investigating White Slavery [Video transcript].