Why Anti-Blackness Has Functioned as America’s “Social Glue” By Staff Reporter | For decades, Americans have argued about the roots of racial tension. Some blame ignorance, others point to economic anxiety or political manipulation. But a growing body of historical and sociological research suggests something deeper and more structural: anti-Blackness has long functioned as a form of “social glue” in the United States, helping bind together groups that otherwise differ sharply in class, ethnicity, religion, and region. This argument does not claim that most Americans consciously harbor hatred toward Black people. Instead, scholars describe a system in which distance from Black Americans has repeatedly been rewarded with belonging, status, and access, making anti-Blackness a stabilizing force in an unequal society. Hierarchy as Cohesion The United States has always been internally divided—by wealth, geography, culture, and belief. Yet one consistent feature has been the placement of Black Americans at the bottom of the social order. Sociologists note that hierarchy can reduce conflict among those above it. When there is a clearly defined bottom rung, competition within the dominant group often softens. From slavery onward, even the poorest white citizens were granted legal and social privileges denied to Black Americans. That distinction created a shared identity rooted not in equality, but in exclusion. Law Turned Exclusion Into Normalcy After slavery, Jim Crow laws did more than segregate society. They codified belonging. Segregated schools, housing, transportation, and voting rules didn’t only oppress Black Americans; they unified white Americans across class lines by giving them a common legal status. Legal historians have shown that American race law became highly systematic. Yale professor James Q. Whitman has documented how U.S. segregation statutes were studied by foreign regimes as examples of how law could enforce racial hierarchy.