An ex-friend of mine grew up in Rhodesia in the 60s and 70s. His dad had been (IIRC) a post man in England, just an average working class guy. They went to Rhodesia and there they lived like the 1%. Private schools, maids, private golf club, etc. All the white people lived like this.

About the time my ex-friend was leaving the new Zimbabwe I was moved to South East Texas from the north/mid-west of the US. I was confronted by systemic racism and the constant refrain, "The South will rise again."

It would be 30 years later that I experienced second-hand my ex-friend's life in pre-liberation Rhodesia. No wonder working class Texans wanted the south to rise again. A permanent black slave class means working class white people live like minor royalty.

Many historians have written about how "race" was invented in the US to create exactly this split between working class whites and blacks doing basically the same jobs. Hearing about it from someone who lived it first hand really brought it home to me.