In my experience, the people most invested in hierarchy have fears of loosing status not an assumption of gaining more. Poor white racists understand they’re poor, that’s why their afraid of any social program that may help black Americans, even when poor white people would benefit too.

they’re not “temporarily embarrassed millionaires”, they’re jealous dragons guarding a shitty treasure.

And it’s not just the poor. Middle class people often view a slide into working class as a life-or-death threat. amidst all the talk of “economic anxiety” around the 2016 election, average Trump supporters earned 20-30K more than Hillary voters.