Citation

Farmer P. Race Ethn. Multidiscip. Glob. Context. 2009; 3(1).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Indiana University Press)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

Everyone knows that suffering exists. The question is how to define it. Given that each person's pain has a degree of reality for him or her that the pain of others can surely never approach, is widespread agreement on the subject possible? Almost all of us would agree that premature and painful illness, torture, and rape constitute extreme suffering. Most would also agree that insidious assaults on dignity, such as institutionalized racism and sexism, also cause great and unjust injury.

Given our consensus on some of the more conspicuous forms of suffering, a number of corollary questions come to the fore. Can we identify those most at risk of great suffering? Among those whose suffering is not mortal, is it possible to identify those most likely to sustain permanent and disabling damage? Are certain "event" assaults, such as torture or rape, more likely to lead to late sequelae than are sustained and insidious suffering, such as the pain born of deep poverty or of racism? Under this latter rubric, are certain forms of discrimination demonstrably more noxious than others?

From Daedalus, 125:1 (Winter, 1996), pp. 251-283. copyright 1996 by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Reprinted with the permission of the publisher, MIT Press Journals.