It’s a blind spot in DEI and intersectionality; the idea that an oppressed class can also be an oppressor class, and that it’s not an attribute of the perpetrator’s class at all, but in fact, situational and individual.
It's well-documented at this point that black women in the USA during slavery were mistreated just as much by white women as white men, despite the weight of patriarchy causing white women to be mistreated by white men as well: oppressor in one situation, oppressed in another.
Intersectionality is calling out that those differences are present within groups, and that no analysis based on only a single axis can ever explain the full situation.
this situation is a perfect example of one of the most basic foundational concepts of intersectionality.
- person A is discriminated against because of some trait
- person A may use whatever power they have to diminish another person because of some trait their own group has historically oppressed.
discrimination isn’t a direct straight line. it’s much more complicated, it intersects in many strange ways.
That’s not how it is applied in practice.
I think this is a textbook description of intersectionality[1].
what's really bleakly funny is that you're right - that's how it's taken, but that's actually a major _point_ of intersectionality.