In 1625 Sir Francis Bacon successfully convinced the British ruling class that their best strategy to quell widespread and frequent rebellions by an ever growing number of poor throughout England was “…dividing and breaking of all factions and combinations that are adverse to the state, and setting them at a distance, or at least distrust amongst themselves (Allen, 2012, p326).” The subsequent construction of a buffer class of magistrates, police, administrators, orphanages, etc., is well known through classics such as Scrooge and Oliver Twist. A broad swath of the poor were elevated into overseers of their fellow lower class citizens and the middle class came into being. Gender was part of the strategy, as women were stripped of virtually all rights, making every man a lord in his own home, no matter how ill behaved he might be.

In 1691 the Virginia Colony, having just barely survived Bacon’s Rebellion (no relation), enacted the same strategy to divide and conquer the poor. The word “white” was written into law for the first time, and the pale skinned members of the mostly Irish indentured servant class were given a significant social upgrade from having no rights and being whipped, raped, and pilloried, to being a buffer class of police and overseers of the freshly arriving African slaves. The demand for first tobacco and then cotton assured there was plenty of wealth to back the new system. The legislation (below), entitled “The act for suppressing outlying slaves,” was nailed to all government buildings and churches:

WHEREAS many times negroes, mulattoes, and other slaves unlawfully absent themselves from their masters and mistresses service, and lie hid and lurk in obscure places killing hoggs and committing other injuries to the inhabitants of this dominion, for remedy whereof for the future, Be it enacted by their majesties lieutenant governour, councell and burgesses of this present general assembly, and the authoritie thereof, and it is hereby enacted, that in all such cases upon intelligence of any such negroes, mulattoes, or other slaves lying out, two of their majesties justices of the peace of that county, whereof one to be of the quorum, where such negroes, mulattoes or other slave shall be, shall be impowered and commanded, and are hereby impowered and commanded to issue out their warrants directed to the sherriffe of the same county to apprehend such negroes, mulattoes, and other slaves, which said sherriffe is hereby likewise required upon all such occasions to raise such and soe many forces from time to time as he shall think convenient and necessary for the effectual apprehending such negroes, mulattoes and other slaves, and in case any negroes, mulattoes or other slaves or slaves lying out as aforesaid shall resist, runaway, or refuse to deliver and surrender him or themselves to any person or persons that shall be by lawfull authority employed to apprehend and take such negroes, mulattoes or other slaves that in such cases it shall and may be lawfull for such person and persons to kill and distroy such negroes, mulattoes, and other slave or slaves by gunn or any otherwaise whatsoever.

Provided that where any negroe or mulattoe slave or slaves shall be killed in pursuance of this act, the owner or owners of such negro or mulatto slave shall be paid for such negro or mulatto slave four thousand pounds of tobacco by the publique. And for prevention of that abominable mixture and spurious issue which hereafter may encrease in this dominion, as well by negroes, mulattoes, and Indians intermarrying with English, or other white women, as by their unlawfull accompanying with one another, Be it enacted by the authoritie aforesaid, and it is hereby enacted, that for the time to come, whatsoever English or other white man or woman being free shall intermarry with a negroe, mulatto, or Indian man or woman bond or free shall within three months after such marriage be banished and removed from this dominion forever, and that the justices of each respective countie within this dominion make it their perticular care, that this act be put in effectuall execution. And be it further enacted by the authoritie aforesaid, and it is hereby enacted, That if any English woman being free shall have a bastard child by any negro or mulatto, she pay the sume of fifteen pounds sterling, within one moneth after such bastard child be born, to the Church wardens of the parish where she shall be delivered of such child, and in default of such payment she shall be taken into the possession of the said Church wardens and disposed of for five yeares, and the said fine of fifteen pounds, or whatever the woman shall be disposed of for, shall be paid, one third part to their majesties for and towards the support of the government and the contingent charges thereof, and one other third part to the use of the parish where the offence is committed, and the other third part to the informer, and that such bastard child be bound out as a servant by the said Church wardens untill he or she shall attaine the age of thirty yeares, and in case such English woman that shall have such bastard child be a servant, she shall be sold by the said church wardens, (after her time is expired that she ought by law to serve her master) for five yeares, and the money she shall be sold for divided as is before appointed, and the child to serve as aforesaid.

And forasmuch as great inconveniences may happen to this country by the setting of negroes and mulattoes free, by their either entertaining negro slaves from their masters service, or receiveing stolen goods, or being grown old bringing a charge upon the country; for prevention thereof, Be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, and it is hereby enacted, That no negro or mulatto be after the end of this present session of assembly set free by any person or persons whatsoever, unless such person or persons, their heires, executors or administrators pay for the transportation of such negro or negroes out of the countrey within six moneths after such setting them free, upon penalty of paying of tenn pounds sterling to the Church wardens of the parish where such person shall dwell with, which money, or so much thereof as shall be necessary, the said Church wardens are to cause the said negro or mulatto to be transported out of the countrey, and the remainder of the said money to imploy to the use of the poor of the parish (General Assembly, 1691).

As it had in England, from the point of view of the upper class, the strategy worked. It worked so well that it became a staple of United States politics, and indeed autocratic politics throughout the world. If you can scapegoat groups with less power, if you can prey on the fears of the buffer classes, you can keep the middle and lower classes from realizing that they really have more in common than they do with the wealthiest members of society. Hitler scapegoated the communists, the jews, the LGBTQ community, and eventually every type of minority. The US has a unique history of dividing and conquering by racism, often mixed with fear of immigrants (with different targets over time, such as eastern Europeans, Chinese, and more recently, Hispanics).

The current president preyed on that fear during the election, and is using culture wars to continue the divide and conquer strategy.

The issue, then, is not anti-DEI versus pro-DEI. Fighting that fight falls into the trap of us and them that has been set.

To create a better future, the cause needs to unite the majority. Our common interest is to aspire towards the best possible democracy, with a commitment to equality and to decreasing prejudice to the extent possible. It does not have to be another class war (us against the wealthy). it should be inclusive of the wealthy who support such a vision. It is long past time for a new commitment to creating a better world.

Allen, T. (2012). The invention of the white race: the origin of racial oppression in Anglo-America. Volume Two. Verso.