"… I am here because in 1991, under the glare of intense political scrutiny and media scrutiny, I shared more of the whole of what it’s like to be a woman, to be black, and to be a black woman facing sexual harassment. Certainly more than my grandmother or mother could share, and more, unfortunately, than women, many women, and men, and people of all genders, can share today." -- Attorney Anita Hill, in her 2019 commencement speech to Wellesley College. Hill, who turns 67 today, was the victim of sexual harassment by now "Justice" Clarence Thomas while working with him at the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Her 1991 testimony at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee alleged Thomas had repeatedly sexually harassed her. Thomas relied on a victimhood defense, claiming he was the subject of a "high-tech lynching for uppity blacks."
In the years since, Thomas has shown himself to be a blind right-wing partisan with corrupt ties to wealthy Republican donors, while Hill's been subjected to character assassination by right-wing media, despite a polygraph indicating that her claim was truthful. Unfortunately, President Biden, who was then chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, didn't acquit himself well, suppressing her witnesses and cutting deals with Republicans to have Thomas confirmed; he later apologized for his role.
Anita Hill's experience presaged the "me too" movement decades later, where the tables are being turned on powerful men who had been abusing women without fear of reprisal. It's a pity that Anita Hill didn't benefit from that movement while she was "under the glare of intense political scrutiny" back in 1991.
(photo: Hill giving testimony. Laura Patterson / CQ Roll Call / Getty Images)
