Those riots are a great way to increase racial tensions and racial divides. When you have the races blaming each other for all their woes, it is much harder for them to get together and notice where their economic trouble is really originating.

I see most 'us vs. them' clashes in much the same light. Take the notion of the wage gap. It focuses on a relatively small wage gap with far more attention than that which is given to the gap in economic gains post recession.