Can the Oppressed Also Be Guilty Of Oppression?

Can the oppressed also be guilty of oppression at the same time?  What do Nazareth Jews and American working class whites have in common?  Both were/are oppressed---Nazareth Jews by Temple elite Jews; working class whites by Wall Street/corporation elites.

At the same time, both were ethnocentric (ethnocentrism is a form of oppression or usually leads to oppression); Nazareth Jews thought they were superior to Gentiles and Gentiles were inferior, unclean.  Working class whites think they are superior to blacks and Mexicans and they are deathly afraid of losing their white supremacy and the white privilege that goes along with it.

Then a white bigoted billionaire who was from the class that oppressed/exploited working class whites showed up on their turf, outwardly showed them some respect, talked their language including a generous dose of blatant racism.  The white working class loved it, believed it, voted it.  Will Trump save them or is it a clever con game?

Clinton did much the same with blacks.  Clinton was called the first black president.  But most of his policies not only did not aid blacks, but actually harmed them.  But showing respect to a people who have been forever disrespected goes a long way.

At one time in our history, poor whites and poor blacks were allies---on the same page.  Then a clever planter elite succeeded in forever dividing them.  Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, tells the tragic story of Bacon's Rebellion: "Nathaniel Bacon was a white property owner in Jamestown, Virginia, who managed to unite slaves, indentured servants, and poor whites in a revolutionary effort to overthrow the planter elite."  The planter elite was oppressing them all.  The planter elite was deeply fearful of this rebellion.

"Deliberately and strategically, the planter elite extended special privileges to poor whites in an effort to drive a wedge between them and black slaves. . . .  Poor whites suddenly had a direct, personal stake in the existence of a race-based system of slavery.  Their own plight had not improved by much, but at least they were not slaves."

Unfortunately, this division between poor and working class whites and poor and working class blacks continues down to today.  Oppressors know how to exploit this division.  This last election was built on exploiting this division.  Tragically, Trump was a genius at this type of politics.