The Guardian nails it: White working class votes for white supremacists. Period.

[wnylib]

67. I agree that it is about racism, but economics are also a factor.

White working class Americans tended to be Democrats prior to the Civil Rights movement. In the North, it was due to economics, especially among immigrants and first generation American-born citizens. In the South, it was due to hatred of Republicans during Reconstruction and a determination to keep former enslaved people on the lowest social rungs, or outside of the social system completely through segregation out of defiance against the winners of the Civil War.

When Blacks began to achieve progress in Civil Rights legislation, most White Americans did not know the severity of poverty and lack of educational opportunities for most Black Americans. There were some educated and middle class Blacks, but proportionately not as many as middle class Whites.

Northern Whites looked at the nation from their own perspective. They were segregated by tradition rather than by law as in the South and knew very little about Black experiences from the perspective of Black people. I remember hearing middle and working class Whites saying things like, "My immigrant grandparents didn't demand special treatment. They came here with no money and worked hard to succeed." But, their White grandparents could assimilate, get work, and build on that. They lived in enclaves by choice to be with people of similar cultural backgrounds, not by social segregation. They had upward mobility even if it took a lot of hard work to move up, even if they were looked down on by WASPS if they were Irish or Italian. They also had elected representation in government because they had enclaves of people who voted for one of their own. They were ALLOWED to vote.

Also, it is not true that they made no demands on their own behalf. Immigrants formed unions, similar to guilds that once existed in Europe to look after them from dues they paid. They fought bitter struggles to establish unions, often getting beat up or killed by thugs hired by management. FDR pushed for legal recognition of the right to bargain. But early unions usually excluded Blacks in the North as well as in the South.

Whites knew that Blacks were excluded from most rights of citizenship, but did not take into account that White immigrants could change their names, learn English, and assimilate BECAUSE they looked like other Whites. Blacks could not do that unless they were very light and and could pass themselves off as Italian or southern French or Greek.

Laws, bank policy, real estate policy all worked against Blacks, in addition to no hire policies and no union representation. How do you pull yourself up by your bootstraps if you have no boots?

So working class Whites saw Blacks as a threat when Blacks began to succeed in Civil Rights legislation, voting rights. education, job training and promotions, desegregation of schools and housing. They viewed Blacks as getting help that they didn't get.

When JFK and LBJ successfully pushed legislation for racial equality, Southern Democrats deserted the Dem party, which LBJ predicted would happen. Outside of the South, White working class people said that the Dems had deserted them because of the emphasis that Dems placed on standing solidly with Civil Rights. It was the right thing for Dems to do. But for a few reasons, many White working class people who did not think of themselves as racist, felt that THEY were being unfairly treated. Sensitivity training and experience working with Blacks did help some Whites see beyond their own perspectives. They learned about the effects of suppressing Black people that social prejudices had created.

Those who could not see beyond themselves and their lives became Reagan Republicans and deserted the Dem party. They bought into the Republican spin that minorities and government supportiveness in achieving equality were unfair to Whites and were the cause of every and any problem that White Americans, especially those in the working class, experienced. They pushed stereotyped images that people who demanded equality were lazy and wanted things handed to them.

Working class Whites could feel social prestige by having select groups on a lower rung of society than themselves. They could also benefit financially by keeping "the other" down socially and economically.

They were so consumed by their social and racial views that they did not see what LBJ warned about, that the party who welcomed them was picking their pockets and lying to them.