Kerry Washington's movie, "Confirmation," made me realize that women all over this country wound up being as outraged as I was by how the good ole white boy network treated Anita Hill and her charges against Thomas.
And the next election cycle, the next DECADE'S worth of election cycles, showed the results of women's outrage.
Carol Mosley Braun, Barbara Boxer, and a slew of women rode the waves Anita Hill created into positions of power in Washington D.C. (not just the Senate as in the picture below)
LINK TO PART 1 of 2 on ANITA HILL
Carol Mosley Braun, Barbara Boxer, and a slew of women rode the waves Anita Hill created into positions of power in Washington D.C. (not just the Senate as in the picture below)
On election Tuesday 1992, American voters sent as many new women to Congress as were elected in any previous decade, beginning a decade of unparalleled gains for women in Congress. In November 2002, women attained another historic milestone when the House Democratic Caucus elected 15-year veteran Nancy Pelosi of California as Democratic Leader—making her the highest ranking woman in congressional history....
Twenty-three of the 34 African-American, Hispanic-American, and Asian-Pacific-American women who have served in Congress were elected between 1992 and 2005.
THE DECADE OF THE WOMAN, COURTESY OF ANITA HILL
The entire conversation about sexual harassment changed. More than one law was put into place, or strengthened so that women had the ability to complain about sexual harassment, even when no touching was involved.
It's still hard to file a sexual harassment complaint, but it used to be impossible before. I've actually known two men who have lost jobs over sexual harassment -- who very likely deserved to lose their jobs.
So don't ever forget three things about Hill V Thomas
1) Thomas was safely harassing female employees --more than one, Anita wasn't the only one to be forced to come forward -- when he was working for the EEOC, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Thomas , according to some reports and opinions of the day, seemed to think his job was to stop the discrimination complaints from ever seeing the light of day.
2) When people say that Thomas was "barely qualified" to sit on the Supreme Court, they are referring to the evaluation done by the American Bar Association and Senate Judiciary Committee
- The American Bar Assn. on Tuesday gave Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas a passing grade of "qualified," but the endorsement fell short of the "well-qualified" ratings received by other recent high court nominees.
- The evaluation by the nation's premier legal organization, whose judgment is considered an important indicator of a nominee's credentials, is the same ABA rating that Thomas received when he was appointed as a federal appeals court judge in 1989.
- In a letter to Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the ABA's screening committee said that "a substantial majority" of its 15 members approved Thomas as qualified, although two members judged him to be "not qualified." It was understood that one or more members abstained from voting.
Funny but true
(Sorry about quality, but it's the audio that counts)
3) Thomas was a quota appointee, not an affirmative action appointee, to the Supreme Court (which is rather ironic based on Thomas' stated position on affirmative action and quotas)
Affirmative Action is supposed to be going out to seek equally qualified black or brown applicants for a work position when the work place in question is heavily over-represented by white people as compared to the general local(?) population. Affirmative Action is NOT about just snatching somebody black, qualified or not- as white people are apt to do, putting them into the overly white space. The latter describes a quota system not an affirmative action system
Clarence Thomas was most definitely snatched up due to his skin color, in my opinion, and shoved into the white space that has been our Supreme Court in order to replace Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall
White republican senators bared their teeth and did everything possible to defend the affirmative action hating Clarence Thomas white white democrats just let republicans rip Anita Hills to shreds.
Even the usually mouthy liberal Ted Kennedy barely said anything while republicans nipped and tore at Anita Hill's bones. As was hinted at in "Confirmation," this was probably because Kennedy had likely lived out "boys will be boys" to a deadly conclusion years before on Chappaquiddick Island; he probably couldn't afford to draw the spotlight on himself by speaking up.
Even the usually mouthy liberal Ted Kennedy barely said anything while republicans nipped and tore at Anita Hill's bones. As was hinted at in "Confirmation," this was probably because Kennedy had likely lived out "boys will be boys" to a deadly conclusion years before on Chappaquiddick Island; he probably couldn't afford to draw the spotlight on himself by speaking up.
HOW WE KNOW HE DID IT, by SALON.COM http://www.salon.com/2010/10/27/anita_hill_clarence_thomas/
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