Racism as a national security vulnerability
Back in September 2017 the president of the NAACP's Legal Defense and Educational Fund posted this:
Racism makes us vulnerable to exploitation. Outside forces know it. It's a national security vulnerability. https://t.co/bGCebPCNDb
— Sherrilyn Ifill (@Sifill_LDF) September 29, 2017
How does this compare to a recent analysis of ads purchased by groups linked to Russian influence?
More than half of Russian Facebook ads sought to divide Americans along racial lines; few mentioned Clinton or Trump explicitly https://t.co/dHWtd5BnBT
— Brendan Nyhan (@BrendanNyhan) May 12, 2018
Expect foreign powers - Russia probably being the primary current example - to look for a society's vulnerabilities and aim to exploit them by playing both sides. It's the sort of principle that applies anywhere and to whatever those local vulnerabilities may be. Think divide and rule, though in the present environment I wonder if it might be better phrased as divide and disable.