Never confuse ‘this person can’t be oppressive because they have no power to oppress’ with ‘this persons opinions can’t be deeply bigoted because their identity makes them immune to bigoted ideas’.
‘this person can’t be oppressive because they have no power to oppress’
An oppressed person can be granted by the oppressive system the power to oppress similar individuals. Besides anyone has the power to act, and they can act in bullying and violence. Example: mothers-in-law kill female babies in order to get male heirs.
What I was getting at in this particular post is not that the oppressed are powerless, they’re not, but that the oppression their experience does not make them immume to that same bigotry.
As for their power, this is a complex matter with a lot of aspects. Someone denied power on one axis of oppression can have power on another axis. Sexism is an axis of oppression but a white, rich, abled woman holds a lot of power along at least three axis of oppression.
Power is also frequently granted specifically by the empowered group to carry out its interest and it is important not mistake this for the same kind of power that is weilded by those in the empowered group. To take your example: women in the patriarchy may kill female babies, but they do so with male consent and the patriarchy that gave them that power can take it away again.
The powerful also have a tendency to specifically select members of the oppressed group as their media spokespersons: a transgender person willing to defend transphobia, a black person willing to defend racist cops, etc. It’s important to recognize these people as puppets whose power can be taken away and the puppet discarded the moment they no longer serve the interests of those in power.
So yeah, power, super complex issue.
QueerAnarchism 