speech and respect - College of Social Sciences and International ...

Taking Sides
status inequality, somebody has to educate them. Those with the
greatest incentive are their victims. Yet the weakest link in all
regulatory processes is not detection, conviction, and sentencing (as
the media and politicans insist) but the failure of victims to complain.
Within any remedial system attrition is greatest at the early
stages: naming an experience as harmful, blaming another, and
claiming redress. 97 Because such decisions are private and invisible,
inequality flourishes. 98 These problems are compounded when the
injury is to dignity, not just property or person. Shame and guilt deter
rape and incest victims from reporting. 99 A British study of sexual
harassment at work found that only 25 percent of victims complained
to a third party, and only 2 per cent took legal action. 1
According to the National Cay and Lesbian Task Force, only one out
of six hate crimes reported to victim assistance groups in six major
American cities was communicated to the police. 2 An even smaller
proportion of those targetted by racial hatred in Britain seek redress—probably
less than 5 per cent. 3
Consciousness is the first obstacle and possibly the greatest.
Victims may have internalised the dominant culture so thoroughly
that they cannot feel the hurt or blame themselves. Women accept
male definitions of love, sex, and beauty. Gays and lesbians try to
pass. Ethnoreligious minorities assimilate, changing their customs,
language, accent, clothes, even skin, nose, eyes, and hair. The more
pervasive the affront, the harder it is to challenge. We should not be
surprised that dignitary harms go unrecognised when for decades
workers endured serious physical disabilities, such as lung impairment
from exposure to coal, cotton and asbestos. Even after victims
have acknowledged their injuries and externalised responsibility,
expressing anger can be a frightening admission of vulnerability and
dependence. 4 Further publicity may aggravate dignitary wrongs: the
repetition of defamation or invasion of privacy, the humiliation of
rape and sexual harassment victims. William Kennedy Smith's lawyer
cast aspersions on the complainant's motives; although Mike
Tyson could have KO'd Desiree Washington with the back of his
hand, he claimed to have been overwhelmed by her superior brains
and education. 5 Anita Hill was maligned as a woman scorned,
seeking revenge and celebrity. The separation of work and family,
impersonality of most interaction, privatisation and commercialisation
of leisure, declining social significance of residential neighbourhoods,
and increasing geographic mobility all encourage victims to
exit from conflict rather than voice grievances. 6 The American
victims' rights movement has failed to involve complainants in
142