Though it would be entirely inappropriate to label “Disgrace” as a racist novel and J.M. Coetzee has a racist writer, a case could be made that some of Coetzee’s assumptions and predispositions have made their way into his book. As the writer, Coetzee has the power to present to the audience what he wishes and potentially sway their opinion of the characters and situations. David Lurie is our protagonist and though many readers are disgusted by his actions and thoughts, Coetzee tries very hard to make the audience understand him and to sympathize with him. What David does to Melanie is “not rape, not quite that, but undesired nevertheless, undesired to the core” (Coetzee 25) because she does not fight back nor show any signs of hysteria while he assaults her. In addition, Coetzee does not show what this sexual harassment situation has done to Melanie, her life, or her personality and fixates instead on David. On the other hand, when Lucy is raped by the three African men, the situation is shown to be a lot more severe and demands that the audience be disgusted by the savagery and horror that these intruders have inflicted. Coetzee describes the mentality that Lucy is left with and as a result “she would rather hide her face…Because of the disgrace. Because of the shame. That is what their visitors achieved; that is what they have done to this confident, modern young woman” (Coetzee 115). There is a vast difference in the way David’s disgrace was portrayed and that of the African men which may suggest that Coetzee viewed the white South Africans and the black South Africans in very unequal ways.