“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”

–Lyndon B. Johnson

That podcast episode (which is great) said the rise was about a 2.5cm per year (or 0.3m/day horizontally). Not that rapid.

Minutes 23-30 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/8-the-sumerians-fall-of-the-first-cities/id1449884495?i=1000454904678