If you want to understand the rise of racism, look into the split labor market theory[1].
If you still believe that 70 million people (in the USA) are upset because they are lazy, stupid, trash and that these populists, like wizards, conjured up their latent virulent racism for their own power with no other possible explanation read: https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/04/are-co...
The ticket into the elite professional class who controls the economy, government, and culture is a basic four year degree. It is becoming virtually impossible for working people to obtain that ticket. The working class only has numbers as its power.
The erosion of unions, mass-membership civic organizations, and the elitism of modern political parties has eliminated the voice of working people in the west. Political democracy is a necessary but not sufficient condition for a democratic society. The economy is increasingly controlled by oligarchs, for instance.
Also, again, we agree a lot and I think that's worth remembering. I too decry loss of unions and civic orgs. I think we need a system that gives more opportunities and where the opportunities are of better quality.
But there are still 2 issues I feel we disagree on:
First, the 70m lazy people. To be clear, I didn't say they were all lazy, I said some were and some were short termist. I'd add that others were risk averse or unambitious. Why is this number not credible to you? There are 330m people in the US, so 21% of people being either lazy or short termist or risk averse etc actually sounds LOW to me. Maybe I am spending time with the wrong people?
Second, who are these elite? I keep hearing about them. But no one seems to know for sure what makes one elite? Right now it seems that we have 70m non elites complaining about 280m elites. How can the elite also be the majority? You can't be above average and in the majority, being elite and the (overwhelming) majority sounds far from possible.
Again, I don't disagree our society needs to improve. I support everything from a UBI to criminal justice reform to education. Now is a perfect time to go after China and that should even bring back jobs to some extent.
I just don't buy this ill defined "elite" concept as the root cause.
The root cause is 20-40 years of social progress and a minority of people choosing (however understandably) not to engage with the new (better) system. Sorry to be blunt about it.
That, and people being bored.
It's been said that riots are the voice of people who feel absolutely disempowered. I very much agree, and I think it applies equally well to BLM riots as it does to white working class people voting for Trump. Both are protesting a sense of total political disempowerment and being ignored and left behind, but in different ways.
My favorite quote from the 2016 election was along the lines of "I can't throw a Molotov cocktail through the window of the White House, but I can throw a Trump." A large number of avid Trump supporters viewed him as a human brick to throw through the window of what they view as an elite establishment that is absolutely dismissive of them.
America is classist and Plutocratic more than it is racist. Poor and working class urban blacks and poor and working class rural whites are both underclasses, and the fact that they are poor is more significant than their ethnicity. A wealthy black person, especially if they live in a top-tier city, is quite a bit "whiter" in America than a poor white person.
I think you can do alright if you put some effort in. Maybe get a degree, maybe get a trade. Maybe start a business. It's not perfect, you'll (as you say) never actually break out of your class of birth. But the opportunity is there. In America, the UK, etc.
But people are lazy and short termism is built into humans. So a big chunk of people do nothing (don't get a degree, don't get a trade, don't start a business, don't take risks) and 20 years later they're working the same job in the same (now dying) business in the same (also dying) Town. And they want to blame someone. So it's all the Chinese/Jews/Immigrants/Democrats fault.
Its grievance politics the same as Hitler.