You ever heard of the Willie Lynch model? Slave masters allowed the lighter skinned slaves in the house and gave them certain privileges that the dark slaves didn't have in order to keep the slaves preoccupied at war with each other to prevent uprisings. This model, I would argue, is still in use today, but in a different form. Now it gives advantages to white people in order to keep white and non-white (blacks, latinos, asians, etc.) people within the lower class at war while the upper class of all races gets over on everyone.