It is not as difficult as it sounds. The easiest white people to fool and scare are those who feel threatened by non-white people. There doesn’t have to be a real threat, just the perception that people of color are coming to get what white people have. It works every time. The rich and privileged have always used this to divide the spoils between themselves by making the poor and underprivileged fight with each other.
Most notably and historically documented in our country is the war between the states which lasted for four years from 1861-1865, killing at least 700,000 soldiers and an untold number of civilians. The greatest killers in this war were not bullets or bombs but diseases. Diseases such as malaria, pneumonia and typhoid induced diarrhea and dehydration. These illnesses were responsible for over 2/3rds of deaths. (https://www.pbs.org/mercy-street/uncover-history/behind-lens/disease/#) The war exacerbated the conditions of poor hygienic practices and laid bare the lack of scientific approaches to medicine.
What actually sparked the war was ‘white-privilege’. That was the notion that white slave owners had the privilege to own and enslave non-white people. For sure there were some native Americans and even people of African origin that owned slaves. The numbers were miniscule, however. According to historian Carter G. Woodson, the free men and women of African descent pre-civil war comprised 13.7% of the total US population enslaving 12,097 men and women, compared to the over 2 million held by white citizens. Those free African men and women also fought to maintain their privilege. They did join and form militia to maintain the status quo of slavery. (https://www.theroot.com/did-black-people-own-slaves-1790895436)
However, these slave holders could not muster the needed military might to foment a revolution against the federal government. They enjoyed their privilege only because the laws were made by white men to white privilege.
The powers that be during this era were the rich white plantation owners who undercut the hard working white tenement farmers and sharecroppers. These were the poor white people who had only one thing that distinguished them from the enslaved African. That one thing was ‘at least we ain’t one of them’. This privilege excited and animated the poor whites making it easy for them to be exploited by the landowners, banks, business men and factory owners. Whenever there was any sense of anger against those who were in power, the rich were able to foment anger in the ranks of the poor.
The United States Civil War was the culmination of the anger in the ranks of the poor, exploited by the rich by telling them, those people will have what you want if you don’t help us to continue to oppress and exploit them. The war served the purpose of white privilege and the very few of African ancestry who hid beneath and took advantage of that privilege. It only worked for them because it worked for the rich white people.
The late President Lyndon Baines Johnson was noted to say; ‘If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
It is easy to fool and scare white people. You just have to make them believe that they are more deserving than those ‘other people’. Make them feel threatened. They will do anything you ask to maintain superiority. They would even be willing to start another civil war.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/marjorie-taylor-greene-calls-national-divorce-liberal-conservative-sta-rcna71464
The point is that anyone of us can be made to fear any one ‘other ‘ of us. It just takes the right mix of fear and privilege mixed with selfish pursuits.
From the Uyghurs in China, the Hutus in Rwanda, to the whites and blacks in America, anyone who foments fear is using it for their own purposes. To stay in power.