The actual utility is that the "petite bourgeoisie" as they're called are essentially turned into witch-hunting footsoldiers to root out leftist organization. This allows the ruling class to freely lower living standards, wages, etc domestically in order to raise profits. It's a temporary but brutal solution.

my own family is a microcosm of this: half of us are white passing and that half married white people, so now they've voting maga and somehow refuse to believe that their own mexican heritage and surnames won't have any impact on how they'll be treated after they're done with the rest of us brown people. it gets much worse when you consider that they have closeted queer children/grandchildren; they've put in efforts to eschew the customs that we all grew up with; and even one of them still isn't an american citizen.

the in/out-crowd mindset is also infectious; my parents stayed true to their leftist/liberal political leanings until my white passing siblings were able to influence them w the relative affluence afforded from my siblings' small business owning in-laws. it took a come to jesus talk with my mother to convince her not to vote for trump in 2016 and it was a lost cause for my father; both told me that we're no longer mexican because we're "better off" than my cousins/aunts/uncles.

last xmas was the feather that broke the camel's back for me: my siblings' abandonment of our xmas customs allowed me to visit those cousins/aunts/uncles (who were not at all white passing) and the main topic of discussion was how crazy republicans have gotten and how white people are becoming that way too; meanwhile i had to learn the hard way w my sister that night that these subjects are "not appreciated" with my immediate family and part of me feels stupid/slow for not picking up on it as quickly as my siblings did.

now i'm able to recognize that my brown siblings have been using their in-laws living in latin-america as an excuse for not visiting for holidays in the last decade+ and i'm going to have to cook up an excuse of my own since i'm no longer married. lol