Nineteen years ago, Anita Hill testified of her experience with the then soon-to-be confirmed Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in which she told of how he sexually harassed her. This sordid affair made news again recently when Thomas’ wife, Tea Partier, Virginia, had the gall to call up Professor Hill leaving a phone message asking for “an apology and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband”. Hill has said there will be no apology given that she testified truthfully.
For those who do not remember, here is Professor Anita Hill’s opening statement, delivered on October 11, 1991.
Anita Hill: “I declined the invitation to go out socially with him, and explained to him that I thought it would jeopardize what at the time I considered to be a very good working relationship. I had a normal social life with other men outside of the office. I believed then, as now, that having a social relationship with a person who was surviving my work would be ill advised. I was very uncomfortable with the idea and told him so.
I thought that by saying “no” and explaining my reasons, my employer would abandon his social suggestions. However, to my regret, in the following few weeks he continued to ask me out on several occasions. He pressed me to justify my reasons for saying “no” to him. These incidents took place in his office or mine. They were in the form of private conversations which would not have been overheard by anyone else.
My working relationship became even more strained when Judge Thomas began to use work situations to discuss sex. On these occasions, he would call me into his office for reports on education issues and projects or he might suggest that because of the time pressures of his schedule, we go to lunch to a government cafeteria. After a brief discussion of work, he would turn the conversation to a discussion of sexual matters. His conversations were very vivid.
He spoke about acts that he had seen in pornographic films involving such matters as women having sex with animals, and films showing group sex or rape scenes. He talked about pornographic materials depicting individuals with large penises, or large breasts individuals in various sex acts.
On several occasions Thomas told me graphically of his own sexual prowess. Because I was extremely uncomfortable talking about sex with him at all, and particularly in such a graphic way, I told him that I did not want to talk about these subjects. I would also try to change the subject to education matters or to nonsexual personal matters, such as his background or his beliefs. My efforts to change subject were rarely successful.”
Thomas’ errors in judgment were largely overlooked by a bunch of white men and he went on to be confirmed on the Supreme Court, the highest court in the U.S.
(Via Crooks and Liars)
