Abuse of Power
Ting Liu
Indiana University South Bend

Abstract
This article mainly writes about the abuse of power. Through Brody claimed in his essay “The Social Power of Expert Healers”, people often stress that they need to have certain powers, but they neglect powers abuse. My article selects Rodriguez’s case. His experience is useful to illustrate Brody’s theories. Rodriguez is the victim of abuse of power. His tragedy not only comes from a “public” abuse, but also comes from a “private” abuse. Then, Rodriguez observed that upper-class abuse their powers to control the lower-class life, and it is due to excessive concentration of power. Based on this article research, I suggest that as a victim of power abuse, people cannot blindly make compromises, they should conduct a reasonable struggle to obtain their powers.

In society, everyone has their own power. Doctors have the power to heal the sick, teachers have the power to educate students. People enjoy using their powers. However, people do not properly use power. Howard Brody, M.D., a professor of family practice, medical humanities, and philosophy, argued in his essay “The Social Power of Expert Healers” that people tend to abuse power. Brody (2000) emphasized that “some ethical analyses in medicine will be flawed or incomplete unless this source of power (and of the abuse of power) is taken into account” (p. 107). Brody mentioned that power abuse easily be ignored in medicine. In our daily life, People often stressed they need to have certain powers, but they neglect power abuse. In the article “Complexion”, Rodriguez described his personal experience. He grew up with black skin. Because of Rodriguez’s dark skin, he received unfair treatment. Based on his description, he argued that he is a victim of the abuse of power. While the backgrounds of these two authors are very different, they both discuss power abuse. And Rodriguez’s case reflects Brody’s theories. People are surrounded by widespread abuse of power, some people abuse the power that concentrated in their hands to harm others.
One of the main characteristics of the society is the abuse of power. As Howard Brody (2000) feared that “the abuses of power attached to membership in the expert class cut across all guidelines for judging the responsible use of power” (p. 114). People who abuse their powers to establish inappropriate rules, and hurt others. In the article “Complexion”, Rodriguez used his own experience illustrates that the abuse of power brings a lot of trouble to his life. Rodriguez was born in a Mexican family. His parents, as Mexicans, have a relatively shallow complexion. Not only that, his brothers and sisters also have lighter skin. Except his older sister has a complexion as dark as him. “It is one thing for people to view themselves as victims of the abuse of power by physicians and other powerful groups in society” (Brody, 2000, p. 113). People often become victims of powerful groups. Precisely, Rodriguez and his old sister are primary victim of racial abuse, because they have dark skin, they were bullied by others, even suffered discrimination. For example, when Rodriguez’s old sister was a little girl, a boy pushed her down to the sidewalk. After she went to college, all the students discriminated against her. Besides, public abused their powers, Rodriguez suffered racist abuse. “A teenager drove past, shouting, ‘Hey, Creaser! Hey, Pancho!’[…] A boy pedaled by and announced matter-of-factly, ‘l pee on dirty Mexicans.’”(Rodriguez, 2000, p. 450). These people carried out the attack on Rodriguez’s complexion. In this case, Rodriguez (2000) “would be paralyzed with embarrassment, unable to return the insult” (p. 450). How obvious language attacks. But Rodriguez did not respond. Rodriguez thought his response can make him feel more embarrassing. Power abuse lets him receive unfair treatment. Like this, people who abuse their powers to harm others. However, Rodriguez’s beliefs about