One of the greatest strategies to gain and hold power over a large population is to pit groups against one another. Divide and conquer. It s a strategy that has been used since the beginning of time as the wealthy elites, knowing they are few in numbers, but large in political sway, can manipulate a populace to their liking so that they remain in power. It s a strategy still being used to this very day, and can be seen in full swing within the Donald Trump campaign.Donald Trump has been using this us vs. them strategy since the start of his campaign. He s made a group of working and middle class blue-collar folks think that the problems in this nation stem from  the other.  The people who aren t just like them. That if those people weren t around, all of their problems would disappear. It s a mind game played by the wealthy and powerful to make groups of people do their bidding for them.This strategy is especially successful when dealing with a group of people who somehow sees themselves as better than another group. And in the video you re about to watch below, author and activist Tim Wise explains this strategy perfectly. He points out that this has been a strategy used on working class whites, especially in the South for as long as one could possibly remember. The wealthy purchased black slaves, stopped hiring the poor working class white workers because they would need to get paid, and then blamed the problems of the poor working class white workers, including lack of jobs or income, on the black slaves. However, whose fault is it? Certainly not the slaves. However, this skillful manipulation to make it so black slaves would get blamed got the poor working class whites to utterly despise black people. It got them to join militias to suppress slave insurrections. It was the ultimate scam. Divide and conquer. Wise also explains that the Civil War was about states rights, sure, the rights for individuals in states to own slaves.Trump is using this same strategy blaming Mexicans and Muslims to rile up a base of poorly educated working class white folks who really just don t know any better. They ve had a rough go in life and Trump is successfully shifting blame from those on top who manipulate the system to  the other  yet again. He s giving these working class angry white people a reason to feel superior even though they are totally being manipulated. It gives them a sense of power and entitlement that is, in all honesty, a ruse.It s the ultimate in white privilege. When you can get people to believe that they are superior and deserve better and more just for being white, and if something is bad, blame the people who aren t white, or aren t Christian, or aren t heterosexual, or aren t Republican.Tim Wise, even recently, posted about how Donald Trump his encouraging hatred. He said in a Facebook post, regarding a story of a man who killed three people for not speaking English: This is the fault of nativist bigots like Donald Trump, encouraging hatred for anyone seen as insufficiently  American  (even someone who, as with one of these victims, was Puerto Rican and thus an American citizen   something probably neither the killer here nor Trump knows). This is the kind of America we re in store for, on a much larger level, if the Trump movement is not defeated resoundingly Quite honestly, you can watch this video ten times in a row and still want to watch it again. Wise hits the nail on the head. Bravo. // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ // < ![CDATA[ (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&#038;version=v2.3"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); // ]]&gt;Tim Wise Schools Audience On White PrivilegedTim Wise Schools Audience On White PrivilegedPosted by Reggie Hood on Friday, September 4, 2015Featured image via Max Goldberg (flickr)