The Koch brothers and associated organizations have also been known to fund both sides of extremist events and encourage them to fight each other.

At a glance, I would say pretty much all of today's hot button issues: abortion, race, gender equality, treatment of sex offenders, treatment of prisoners & released felons, terrorism, the current spate of sexual assault accusations...

All of it has roots at a level where the rich and powerful benefit from keeping people fighting with each other and begin terrified of the next boogey man instead of paying attention to the "powers that be." And it's simply because the potential benefit of doing so is unbelievably high, it effectively has no ceiling: consolidation of power, finance, and resources as an end goal so that what, 8 people? control almost all the world's wealth, is a pretty compelling reason.

>A lot of the racial tension is probably not by accident.

It absolutely is not by accident, not most of it. There are a lot of interests that make money keeping racial tensions high. News outlets are one.

Bacon's Rebellion is a very significant historical event that happened in 1676 that still gets taught and still has an effect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon%27s_Rebellion

The alliance between indentured servants and Africans (most enslaved until death or freed), united by their bond-servitude, disturbed the ruling class, who responded by hardening the racial caste of slavery in an attempt to divide the two races from subsequent united uprisings with the passage of the Virginia Slave Codes of 1705.

Indentured servants both black and white joined the frontier rebellion. Seeing them united in a cause alarmed the ruling class, historians believe the rebellion hastened the hardening of racial lines associated with slavery, as a way for planters and the colony to control some of the poor.

The reason the ruling class is allowed to rule (today and through history) was because the underclass was divided. Kings would keep nobility fighting with each other and not the kings.

The US racial divide is an implementation of the same thing. If poor blacks and poor whites constantly bicker (and worse) at each other, they certainly aren't bickering with the powers that be. Divide and conquer. One of the oldest strategies in the book. Hell, look at what the Hippies were able to do as far as civil unrest with the government in the late 60s. Hippies weren't known to be racist, infact the opposite. That certainly wouldn't do. Enter the drug war.

Here in South Africa a sophisticated campaign to inflame racial tensions was recently exposed. Notably a UK firm (Bell Pottinger) was hired to achieve this. To cut a long (but fascinating) story short the underlying aim is to fast-track a nuclear power station deal (9 units) with Russia that would put SA in its debt to the tune of >$100 billion dollars. This is common knowledge, reported in local newspapers at this stage. Nobody wants the power stations (nor do we need them); many are calling for free college education instead. Guess what we are going to get.