Yep, every time I read about a racial issue in the US, it turns out it's always a social/economic issue, but talking about the "working class" is implicitly prohibited in the media (thanks to the red scare) so they make it about race. Divide and conquer works fine. Hell, even the poorest americans will bash on unions and any idea of a class identity. Are the poor misrepresented in higher education? Just shove in some blacks to even out the color, that'll fix it.
Look at the 16 or so classes of the "sistema de castas" that the Spanish American areas used., for example.
PS no hispanics were ever enslaved in Canada and the United States.