Institutional Racism

III. Harassment
and Psychological Warfare
Harassment covers a wide range of behaviors of an offensive nature. It is commonly
understood as behavior that demeans, humiliates or embarrasses a person, and it is
characteristically identified by its unlikelihood in terms of social and moral
reasonableness. In the legal sense, these are behaviors that appear to be disturbing,
upsetting or threatening. It evolves from discriminatory grounds, and has an effect of
nullifying or impairing a person from benefiting their rights. When this behaviors become
repetitive it is defined as bullying. Sexual harassment refers to persistent and unwanted
sexual advances even after gently refusing, typically in the workplace, where the
consequences are potentially very disadvantageous to the victim if there is a power
imbalance between the perpetuator.
Etymology
The word is based in English since circa 1618 as a loan word from the French, which
was in turn already attested in 1572 meaning torment, annoyance, bother, trouble and
later as of 1609 was also referred to the condition of being exhausted, overtired. Of the
French verb harasser itself there are the first records in a Latin to French translation of
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