We live in a world that some folks call overly politically correct. Others feel that the world we live in can tend toward crudeness and a lack of sensitivity toward minorities, women, the elderly and the mentally challenged. The common response to that is to say that we actually live somewhere in the middle where the world isn't really too crude or too stifled, but that's not reallly a good analysis of what it's actually like out there.
You see, most of the time the world is just fine. People of all genders, colors, creeds and races can get along with each other and sort of pull in the same direction with little to no problems. However, that ninety five percent of the time doesn't make up for the five percent of the time when people - and again, it's usually people who fall into the categories mentioned above - are harrassed, discriminated against, or otherwise treated as less than another group.
That is why, if you feel you have suffered something akin to what I've just described, you should do your due diligence and find a competent harassment attorney. Especially if it's a work related situation.
And remember, harassment doesn't have to be as overt as being called the "N-word" by an overbearing boss. An harassment attorney can listen to your story and tell you whether you have a case, whether you've been harassed or discriminated against, and whether you are due damages in civil court.
Of course, whether you win said damages largely depends upon the skill of your harassment attorney. A good one can turn the jury toward sympathy for the plaintiff with seeming ease, while a bad harassment attorney isn't likely to win you anything even if you've been pantsed and stuffed in a trash bin.
Harassment itself comes from French roots and the anglicized version of it dates back to the seventeenth century. The French word itself dates from the sixteenth century, and its definition is loose enough to mean anything from "bother" to "torment." Hence, you find many a harassment attorney who can stretch the definitin of harassment - workplace or otherwise - to fit the needs of any particular case.
Probably the most famous harassment-related legalities stem from the United States Civil Rights Act of 1964, specifically title VII. It became the constitutional basis for all types of harassment law, and as such it is a relatively young - not even fifty years old! - legal field.