Racial Harassment Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Racial Harassment - Article Example   According to the Giuffre and Williams study (1994), one of the four contexts in which the respondents identified actions as being examples of sexual harassment reinforces the idea of dominance as it refers to the exploitation of a powerful position for personal gain. In a situation in which the majority race controls many of the lucrative and influential social positions, racial harassment might be seen as being used to reinforce that dominant position. It highlights the fact that the harasser is in a position to get away with actions that are unfair because of his membership of the majority and powerful race. The psychological effect of this on the victim is great. Researchers have been examining the connection between post-traumatic stress disorder and the effects of racial harassment on the victim. Racial harassment has been considered by some of these psychologists as an injury that behaves like a disorder (Carter, 2003). When reinforcing words by a member of the powerful maj ority are used in a situation in which the subordinate position of the victim is already evident, the harassment has the violating effect of legitimizing the victim’s subordination and making him or she feel that the unjust relationship between the races is the correct one. In this way, racial harassment certainly exposes its usefulness in keeping the subordinate group in mental and physical subjection to the oppression of the dominant race. Another of the four contexts in the Giuffre and Williams study (1994) depicted racial harassment in which a member of a minority racial group harassed a member of the majority group. This offers a new perspective on the topic, because it seems to demonstrate a situation in which racial harassment occurs not as an attempt by the dominant race to keep the subordinate one submissive, but rather as a (possible) reaction by a member of the subordinate race to the oppressive nature of the race relations in his or her environment. This can be seen in the case of a minority man’s harassing a white woman.