The goal of political parties is to create polarization. They want "reliable voters" that associate themselves intrinsically with one side or the other rather than people who question or think about individual policies. The more divided things are, the better. They aim their messages like arrows, targeted toward groups they can win over.
The main prize for the Left isn't actually minorities, it's well-off white people who want to feel magnanimous and charitable while still keeping the "wrong kind" of people out of their neighborhoods. They consider themselves to be the true representatives of whiteness and have abandoned the idea of equality because they define everyone by their differences first and foremost.
They're comfortable and secure enough in terms of status and wealth that they're not negatively affected by elevating someone else--they're still going to be at or near the top regardless. Since they think of themselves the avatars of white people, the troubles and concerns of lower class whites are dismissible. Thus they are fine with "equity" since they're not actually the one who feel the crunch when the bill comes due. They are the white people who have been through the lunch line, have gotten their food, then come back to tell the remaining white people to go to the back of the line to balance things out.
The Right has gleefully seized upon the bitterness this has created. Those who bang the drums the loudest in protest are the ones who love it the most because they can use it to their advantage. They know that the majority of the working class isn't on their computers all day, they're going to be less informed and easier to manipulate, and they take advantage. While the Left is much more subtle with their misinformation, usually by manipulating sources, the right can outright lie much easier.
It's a situation where loud voices on both sides are extremely biased, extremely prejudiced, and spread their toxicity like a disease. Race is one component of that but it bleeds into everything else, even when it shouldn't be the main factor, because it's the easiest target to hit from either direction.
I work in a large factory in the Southern United States that has had a racially diverse workforce for decades. I know white and black people who have been working here for 30+ years. What makes people of ANY color angry and resentful is the idea that they or their family is being placed in an unfair situation based on criteria out of their control. They don't care if it's in response to a situation that happened somewhere else, all the care about is that THEY are being hurt in response. As long as the mandates of equity keep unapologetically screwing people over, there will be bitterness that allows those who prey on such emotions to fan the flames into a bonfire.
