Poor whites were mistreated, excluded, jailed, and generally abused by the white slave owning class. So why did they align with them then, and why do they continue that alignment today? There are moments of collaboration between poor whites and enslaved or emancipated blacks, but only moments before the ruling class changes their strategy.
Keri Leigh Merritt's book, Masterless Men unpacks the history of the Deep South during the antebellum period. It explains much about deep seated beliefs today, and contains clues about how to move forward.
Transcript available here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wOF2Rr0jyVSKmrrQadArRKwnhnRVpOTk