It has occurred to me finally that racist behavior is nearly all about money, and maybe it always has been, and I feel very stupid

Highly disparate economic outcomes aren't a side effect or a reinforcing factor. They are the method and the goal.

I literally thought that hatred of "otherness" was the problem, and I didn't get it. "Otherness" is just a shortcut to dehumanize, hoard, deprive and rationalize the outcome.

I guess I use "money" to mean any limited useful thing, but to be honest I don't understand power very well, so pardon my shorthand.

I feel so stupid, and also betrayed. Like, why did slave traders trade slaves? "The promise of a better life [at somebody else's expense]." To make a buck. Why did colonizers colonize? Why did oppressors oppress?

None of the history I learned as a kid started with, "so, Columbus wanted to get rich," or, "it was quickly clear that Bolshevism wasn't going to be keeping them in the style to which they had become accustomed." Motivation matters.

Corollary: I have no practical suggestion to disincentivize people who strive to work the levers that increase inequality.

I feel gross.