However racist you think America and the rest of the Imperial Core can be, you're still off by several orders of magnitude. Crackers are cruel and hostile towards their own family members, nevermind people they view as "other."

Something I've been thinking about is American media compared to media from other countries. In foreign media, characters who experience conflict with each other often forgive and build trust. For example, in Tokyo Vice, a yakuza tries to have another killed. When brought before the other yakuza he tried to murder for retribution, the other character said "No more killing," sparing his life. He then became a loyal friend to the man he once tried to murder. The show is partially based on a true story, though I am unsure if this was an actual thing that happened. My point is, even among human traffickers and contract killers, the capacity for empathy is still there, and I think it's representative of the society the story takes place in.

Such a thing would never happen in the US. Both characters would immediately be plotting on how to kill one another. Cynicism runs rampant as it's perpetuated by white supremacy. Because the settler-colonialist inflicts pain and suffering on everything around them, they can't comprehend non-transactional relationships. I think people in the Global South project their humanity onto the Imperial Core, which naively leads them to conclude crackers mean what they say and aren't conniving ways to further loot the rest of the world.