It was absolutely done to us by the rich - or those with some wealth as opposed to those of us with no weath. Why are there bad parts of town? Because white folks took their money and fled once Black folks moved in. Capital flight. Why don't we have the robust family and social ties that other societies do? Capitalism has demanded that we sever those ties, or at least subordinate them to the almighty goal of earning a paycheck. It's difficult to impossible to maintain networks when you can't make plans with people because your schedule is all over the place, and you might not know which days you work next week until the end of this week. We've been subjected to capitalist propaganda for decades - so of course people are behaving in the ways they've been manipulated into behaving.