Whats The Difference Between Victimizer And Philip Hallie

Phillip Hallie says “cruelty… is a kind of power relationship, an imbalance of power wherein the stronger party becomes the victimizer and the weaker becomes the victim” (Hallie 8). Hallie’s definition of cruelty derives from Frederick Douglass’s autobiography where he discusses the origins of slavery and the importance of dignity. Hallie characterizes cruelty in two ways: episodic and institutionalized. In episodic cruelty “the victim knows he is being hurt, and his victimizer knows it too” while in institutionalized cruelty there is “a persistent pattern of humiliation that endures for years in a community, both the victim and victimizer find ways of obscuring the harm that is being done” (Hallie 6). The difference between the two is that in second, the victim and victimizer do not see anything wrong with superiority and inferiority because that is what they believe should happen.
To gain freedom, a victim has to become stronger and stand up to the victimizer to balance their powers. Without an imbalance of power, everyone is seen as equal and treated fairly. Hallie adds that hospitality is an important component because it is “unsentimental, efficacious love” that makes cruelty evil. Hallie provides the example of The Holocaust and that the opposite of cruelty was not just freeing the camps, but hospitality of the people who cared for the survivors afterwards. The opposite of cruelty does not stop at freedom, but extends to the loving hospitality that should be received as a