A model of legal protection underlies contemporary antidiscrimination policies and places responsibility on the victim to perceive and report violations. However, these strategies ignore the realities of life for the powerless, particularly women and men of color. An analysis of 560 discrimination claims from 5,000 households in 1980 has provided data on the choices that discrimination victims make in view of the perceived social constraints and the vision of protective law. Approximately half of the aggrieved individuals did not make a claim to the other party, nearly two-thirds did nothing further to rectify their perceived mistreatment, and only a very small percentage successfully resolved their claims. Indepth interviews of 18 persons in Milwaukee and Los Angeles who had not pursued their claims were conducted in 1982. Respondents variously accounted for their inaction by noting the harm their opponent could cause them, by blaming themselves, or by accepting the inevitability of the situation. Thus, social and psychological factors rather than lack of information or resources were the reasons for inaction. Most respondents viewed protest as contrary to their well-being and livelihood. The gap between the symbolic life of law as a protective force and the ineffectiveness of the law in action imposes a cost that is being borne by the intended beneficiaries of civil rights policies. 41 footnotes.