In case you missed it, Anita Hill’s op-ed in the Sunday New York Times (available here) was powerful. Of Thomas’s new book, My Grandfather’s Son, Hill wrote:
…I will not stand by silently and allow him, in his anger, to reinvent me. In the portion of his book that addresses my role in the Senate hearings into his nomination, Justice Thomas offers a litany of unsubstantiated representations and outright smears that Republican senators made about me when I testified before the Judiciary Committee : that I was a”combative left-winger”who was”touchy”and prone to overreacting to”slights.” A number of independent authors have shown those attacks to be baseless. What’s more, their reports draw on the experiences of others who were familiar with Mr. Thomas’s behavior, and who came forward after the hearings. It’s no longer my word against his.
In the op-ed, Hill also said, “Regrettably, since 1991, I have repeatedly seen this kind of character attack on women and men who complain of harassment and discrimination in the workplace. In efforts to assail their accusers’ credibility, detractors routinely diminish people’s professional contributions.”
Hill appeared today on Good Morning America (link available here).
More news coverage here. (Hat tip: Sharon Berger.)
-Bridget Crawford
I especially liked this:
“Those accused of inappropriate behavior also often portray the individuals who complain as bizarre caricatures of themselves : oversensitive, even fanatical, and often immoral…” Sure sounds like Justice Thomas to me.
My surprise with Justice Thomas? How OLD he appears to be. I about fell out of my chair when I realized he was only 59. But nothing he SAYS surprises me in the least….he’s all of the anger all the time.
I thought Hill’s op ed was fabulous. She has a spine of steel, which is a very good thing indeed given how she’s been in the wing-nuts sights for a very long time.