Modern racism isn't about white folks hating black folks. Its about rich folks hating poor folks. It just so happens if you're black, you're more likely to be poor. But white folks are starting to learn now that you don't have to be black to be unemployed, or addicted, or on welfare, or living in a criminal neighborhood or a deteriorating community.

Black folks, and Hispanics, Jews, and/or any other ethnic minority, can join the country club, or marry white girls, or run in the Republican primary, or send their kids to a good college, or move into a posh neighborhood as long as they are members of the right social and economic class. Unfortunately, class mobility isn't what it used to be, and people, particularly those in the rapidly shrinking working and middle classes, are finally starting to get hip to that. The real "elites" in this country aren't the people who are well-educated, or work in media, or are intellectuals, or have careers in the arts or work in politics or government bureaucracies. They're the people who own or manage big commercial enterprises.

Once you understand that, you understand class conflict, and then everything else makes sense.