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Anita Hill before the Senate Judiciary Committee on October 11, 1991
Greg Gibson/AP Photo
SEX, POWER, and RACE are the best words to categorize the 1991 Senate Confirmation Hearing between Anita Hill and current Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
The obscene details (of which I refuse to go in-depth about) regarding Thomas’ behavior toward Hill and everything concerning the case reflects a ubiquitous truth that is prevalent today——the lack of black male accountability when it comes to sexual misconduct.
There were basically no black men who supported Hill. Most of them saw her experience as a way to “bring a brother down”. It stuns me that black women are to have this assumed protection of black men, especially when he is in a powerful position, that is put as a top priority over their pain. That’s the same reason why model Beverly Crawford did not come forward about Bill Cosby.
“When I was asked by a representative of this committee to report my experience, I felt that I had to tell the truth; I could not keep silent”, said Hill during the hearing. Hill’s experience is nothing far from the truth in the black community. Clarence Thomas compared the situation to the lynchings that took place in the South, saying that the Senate was lynching his character and status. But what about the lynching of Anita Hill’s reputation and credibility? What about her?
There seems to be an understood code of silence for black men when it comes to the suffering of black women. I know more black women who have been sexually abused by black men than those who have not. According to an article by Cherise Charleswell entitled “Sexual Abuse and the Code of Silence in the Black Community“, sixty percent of black girls have experienced sexual misconduct from black men before becoming 18 years old. Charleswell mentions the negative reception from black men of Alice Walker regarding the book and movie The Color Purple, emphasizing that it was not an accurate depiction of black men. However, the story is based on true stories that have happened to black women across the nation.
If you ask black women from any demographic about being raped or harassed, nine times out of ten most of them would say that they have. Furthermore, those instances mainly occur from black men in the family (a cousin, an uncle, etc.).
As a black girl, seeing Anita Hill’s situation made me realize that black men choose to remain silent about these issues regarding sexual misconduct. Regardless of the outcome, Anita Hill sparked significant change. The chart below shows the increase in the number of sexual harassment complaints from 1992-1996. There is no doubt that Hill’s brave decision to tell the truth established this change.
From U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission