ANITA HILL'S AFTER LIFE (Oprah's "no Chief Justice Clarence Thomas" campaign)

O Magazine (Oprah) ^ | July, 2005 | Elizabeth Mitchell

[paulat]

ANITA HILL'S AFTER LIFE
By Elizabeth Mitchell

In 1991 more than 20 million TV viewers watched as a well-regarded young law professor named Anita Hill accused her former boss, Clarence Thomas, of sexual harassment—and in return was smeared as a pathological liar, a would-be political assassin, and a prude. Thomas made it to the Supreme Court, and Hill vanished into academia—but not before changing the way we think about men and women in the workplace.

The Hearings

On October 11, 1991, the 35-year-old faced a grilling by 14 white male senators, many of them furious that she had delayed their march to confirm Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. The topic was his alleged sexual harassment of her when she worked at the Department of Education and, later, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), but the tone of the hearings clearly implied that the Republican senators were out to prove her a liar. Carried by the networks and PBS over three days of near-continuous coverage, Hill's accounts of Thomas's describing the length of his penis and enjoying pornography involving animals reached more than 20 million American households. Beyond that, CNN carried the testimony worldwide to an audience so rapt, Hill has been recognized on the streets of South Africa and Bhutan.

[snip]

Even today, for many people Anita Hill is a hero.

[snip]

... in coming forward, Anita Hill was also branded everything from a delusional, bitter prude to a sexual deviant. Her home phone rang incessantly with death threats. Despite Hill's courage, Clarence Thomas went on to the Supreme Court, while she spent half of the next decade in agony.

[Half Vast Conspiracy]

...Anita Hill accused her former boss, Clarence Thomas, of sexual harassment—and in return was smeared as a pathological liar, a would-be political assassin, and a prude.

As opposed to the way the left characterized Thomas?

[sinkspur]

There weren't too many people who noticed that not a single person who knew both of them stuck up for Hill. They were all on Thomas' side. That said volumes to me.

Me too. Notice how the steamroller ran out of steam as the hearings wrapped up.

Biden left some other chick who said Thomas "harrassed" her cooling her heels in an ante room.

He was too embarrassed to call her to testify.

[ken21]

the logic of the hearings was overrided by the feminist theatrics of television.

the tone was hysterical.

it reminded me of the communist theatre of antonin artaud and the street theater of the 1968 riots in france.

[Oztrich Boy]

Clarence Thomas isn't really black

[tacticalogic]

I don't think that she would go for Thomas, over Scalia; I'm sure that she would consider Thomas a race-traitor.

The Raisch case bears witness - Thomas is a much bigger threat to the proponents of "living document" jurisprudence than Scalia. The liberals would hate Thomas if he was lime green with purple polkadots.

[ClearCase_guy]

Exactly. My attempt at humor failed (hey, it's happened before ...) but my point was that the Left has pretty much said that Thomas is not Black, because he is not a Leftist. I think it's amusing that both Anita Hill and Oprah could be crticized the same way "Oppose Thomas?? You must not be REALLY black" It's a stupid, insulting, and condescending thing to say.

Conservatives never talk like that. But Leftists say that stuff all the time. They said it about Thomas. They said it about Bush's judicial nominees. It's disgusting.

[zip]

Even today, for many people leftist,Godless anti Americans, Anita Hill is a hero.

Just thought I would clear it up a little.

[zip]

My attempt at humor failed

No, it didn't. I understood exactly where you were saying.

[PhiKapMom]

OU President Boren finally got rid of Anita Hill from the OU Law faculty. He was one of President Bush's point men in the Senate for the Thomas' nomination and when David Boren resigned from the Senate to become President of OU (after Clinton was elected), he set out to oust Hill from the faculty which he did. Then he sent back the money that was given for an endowed chair for Hill refusing to do matching funding for an Anita Hill Chair in the Law School.

Hill complained that Boren didn't like her, wouldn't talk to her at receptions, and wanted her gone -- one thing she got right! Not many tears shed in Norman when she left the Tulsa branch of the OU Law School where she had been moved by Pres Boren.

[paulat]

I wonder what you all think about how effective a "revival" of Anita Hill would be in this post-Bubba world?

[Unam Sanctam]

I suppose Bill Clinton is Dems' ideal for appropriate behavior in the workplace as far as men and women are concerned.

[Jabba the Nutt]

"—but not before changing the way we think about men and women in the workplace."

No she didn't. It was simply a political attack. And I can prove this in only two words: Bill Clinton. Yup, there we saw NOW and Anita Hill's concern about sexual harassment in the workplace, the attempt by a powerful man to intimidate a women out of her day in court and his attempt to lie his way out of the consequences of his behaviour. We saw all the liberals, all the women's groups and all the Democrats rally around the underdog women in her unequal battle against the privileged and powerful. NOT!

I wish the Republicans had had the balls to try to repeal the sexual harassment laws, just as I now wish they had the balls to repeal another liberal, elite "reform", ie McCain-Feingold. Both were not enough against powerful, rich, elite, Democrat Liberals. If they're not enforced against them, it's unfair to enforce them against the non-powerfu, non-rich, non-elite, non-Democrats.

[CyberAnt]

Ooooh .. You're good .. do you do other impersonations ..??

[paulat]

I wish the Republicans had had the balls to try to repeal the sexual harassment laws

They won't because they have wives and daughters.

[DoughtyOne]

I'm not really an impersonator, I just play one on F.R. Hey wait, isn't that impersonating? I'm confused...

[CyberAnt]

YOU confused .. never happen!

[DoughtyOne]

LOL No, it does happen. I just try to hide it well. Key word, 'try'...

Have a good night.

[kcvl]

Anita Hill and Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal

******

Monicagate: Time and again, prominent feminists have declined to condemn Clinton or have said explicitly that his pro-choice policies or his appointments of women to Cabinet positions matter far more than his regrettable tendency to drop trou and demand oral sex from women both willing and unwilling. “We’re trying to think of the big picture, think about what’s best for women,” Eleanor Smeal, the president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, told Vanity Fair’s Marjorie Williams in May.

Eleanor Smeal, president of The Feminist Majority, said Lewinsky will always take care of herself. "She had a tough year, but she will do fine," she said. "Lewinsky is a modern woman. She knew what she wanted, and to a degree, she got it. She'll go on doing that."

******

[kcvl]

FEBRUARY 4, 1999 6:19 PM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Feminist Majority
Justine Andronici, 703-522-2214


National Women's Leaders Oppose Live Testimony At Senate Trial; Statement of Eleanor Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority

WASHINGTON - February 4 -

I am proud to join today with national women's leaders and leading women members of Congress to urge the United States Senate to put an end to this spectacle of hypocrisy and travesty of justice. The 13 House managers want to subject Monica Lewinsky and the American public to live testimony on the floor of the Senate. This woman has been forced to offer the same testimony, and the same facts 23 times. Enough is Enough.

The house managers are showing their true Religious Right colors. In this last ditch attempt to save face, they have once again demonstrated by their statements and actions that they are out of touch with the American people - especially American women.

As leaders in the national women's rights movement, we have known for some time just how out of touch these Republican House managers are-- and now, at last, so will the nation. Their blatant disregard for public opinion in this matter is no surprise. Time and time again, Henry Hyde and the other managers have ignored the public's overwhelmingly pro-women's rights and pro-choice views, and now they are ignoring the public once again. It is interesting to note that even during this impeachment trial several House managers, including Henry Hyde, have spoken of their opposition to abortion. The out-of-touch behavior of the 13 House managers in this impeachment trial has done more to reveal the dominance of the Religious Right in the Republican Party than the thousands of anti-choice and anti-women's rights votes cast by Congressmen such as Henry Hyde, and his band of twelve.

Feminist leaders spoke early and often in opposition to the impeachment of the President. And today we have a message for the managers -- it seems they need reminding. The American people, especially women, are not with you. We do not want this trial to continue. It is time to GIVE IT UP.

Note: Feminist Majority President, Eleanor Smeal joined other national women's rights leaders and women members of the US Congress today to oppose live witness testimony in the Senate Impeachment trial of President Clinton. Smeal was joined by Patricia Ireland, President of the National Organization for Women; Dr. Yvonne Scruggs Leftwich, Executive Director, Black Leadership Forum; Dorothy Height, President Emeritus, National Council of Negro Women; Dr. Ramona H. Edelin, President, National Urban Coalition and interim Executive Director of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation; Lina Frescas Dobbs, Executive Director, Wider Opportunities for Women; Dr. Martha Burk, Center for the Advancement of Public Policy

[kcvl]

January 28, 1998

Linda Chavez

Clinton, Lewinsky, and Politics vs. principle

Patricia Ireland, Eleanor Smeal, Anita Hill, call your office. The most important sexual harassment case in U.S. history is unfolding in Washington, and the leaders of the National Organization for Women, the Feminist Majority and the National Women's Political Caucus are nowhere to be found. Monica Lewinsky, who has accused President Clinton of engaging her in a year-and-a-half long exploitive and demeaning sexual relationship, is very much in need of some sisterly support.