It’s not that simple. Racist folks in America don’t care they are poor as long as minorities are even poorer. That’s a huge part of Republican politics, that’s why they vote for Trump. Trump doesn’t promise them they will have better lives. It’s all racist dog whistles promising them they will still be on top, they will be the ‘better’ race. That’s why they oppose all sensible policies, because they will try to fix inequality and inequality is what they want.
And I don’t think there’s a simple fix for this. Many countries have this issue (UK, France) and the more progressive policies you try to push there the stronger the push back is. In the end it usually goes farther right until something terrible happens…