discrimination chain? is it a genuine expression for native speakers?
"The non-Portuguese look down on the Portuguese, the Portuguese look down on the Macau residents, the Macau residents look down on the Mainland Chinese, and the Mainland Free Scheme Chinese look down on the package tours." " Not only Macau has its own discrimination chain, but it also has a blaming chain."
The two sentence above were from a Macau newspaper, the piece was written by a Chinese writer. In China, we have an interesting social phenomenon named "鄙视链", as described by the Chinese writer. 鄙视链 literally means discrimination chain in English. But I doubt whether native speakers can understand or if it is used at all.
If the answer is no, could you please tell me how to describe the situation in English?
Thank you very much.

Question

discrimination chain? is it a genuine expression for native speakers?
"The non-Portuguese look down on the Portuguese, the Portuguese look down on the Macau residents, the Macau residents look down on the Mainland Chinese, and the Mainland Free Scheme Chinese look down on the package tours." " Not only Macau has its own discrimination chain, but it also has a blaming chain."
The two sentence above were from a Macau newspaper, the piece was written by a Chinese writer. In China, we have an interesting social phenomenon named "鄙视链", as described by the Chinese writer. 鄙视链 literally means discrimination chain in English. But I doubt whether native speakers can understand or if it is used at all. 
If the answer is no, could you please tell me how to describe the situation in English?
Thank you very much.

Answer

I agree: it isn't an established set phrase, but its meaning is clear.  If you reverse the word order and say "chain of discrimination", it will seem even more natural.
I'll follow John with another related expression: "kicking the cat".   If your superior acts badly towards you, and you vent your anger at your superior by being mean to your subordinates, you are kicking the cat.
There are a few parts of the paragraph that seem MUCH more unnatural than "discrimination chain".  The worst offender is "Not only Macau has".  This should instead be written: "not only does Macau have."

Answer

I agree with Gary.  I would add that I cannot think of a standard expression in English to express the idea.  The closest I can think of is “pecking order,” but that often involves levels of power within an organization (i.e., “he is very high in the pecking order in the company”) and does not imply discrimination/prejudice or a sense of social superiority.

Answer

Given that the context is clearly explained in the preceding paragraph, the meaning is perfectly clear. It doesn't have to be a standard expression as long as the meaning is obvious, which I think it is.

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