So the L.A. police turn out to be a praetorian guard of blue-collar whites who are blatantly and openly hostile to non-white minorities.

He could talk to both blacks and blue-collar whites, and listen to them.

Mr. Clinton continued to score impressively among both blacks and blue-collar whites, suggesting a capacity to transcend racial division and build coalitions.

These blue-collar, working-class whites were a voting bloc that strongly backed Hillary Clinton throughout the primary.

But to do so, Democrats would have to overcome years of racial distrust between blue-collar whites and poor minorities.

The GOP elites are scared to death that the blue-collar whites are going to figure that out.

Mr. Brown made little effort here, but Mr. Tsongas apparently still failed utterly to sell himself to any significant number of blacks or blue-collar whites.

He forged a winning coalition of blacks, blue-collar whites, and local businessmen that would dominate Shreveport politically for most of the remaining years of the 20th century.

Third, although overt racial hostility certainly remains a factor, especially among urban blue-collar whites, ethnic segregation now increasingly masks the real story: class segregation.

He did best with blue-collar and low- to middle-income whites, picking up 68 percent of whites with a high school education or less.