Ginny Thomas, Justice Clarence Thomas' wife, called Anita Hill and asked why she lied about her husband during the confirmation hearings and asked for an apology!!
I was going to let this weird, disgusting story go until I read Ruth Marcus' column about it. After doing a fine job of reciting why Clarence Thomas was the one who should apologize to Hill, she ended with this,
And what to make about the other party to this transaction, Anita Hill? Why not ignore the message, rather than refer it to the campus police? Why play it for reporters and give interviews about it? A voice mail on an office phone isn't exactly intrusive, and there was no harassing follow-up. Ginni Thomas might have been out of line, but she wasn't threatening in any way.
I couldn't believe what she wrote. I responded in the comments,
I find it hard to believe you don't understand why Ms. Hill made this public.
This woman was harassed by Clarence Thomas -her supervisor - and was then asked to testify about it before the whole world, only to watch the Senate confirm him anyway. By that action the Senate was telling the world that either they didn't believe her, or felt "yeah, he did it, but the victim was just a black woman of no consequence."
How would you like to live with that, Ms. Marcus, and then have the wife of the guy who did this to you call and ask for an apology? An apology!
I applaud Anita Hill for going public. I guess Ginny got her answer, huh?
A few minutes later WarriorJames1 wrote:
Anita Hill's actions about this bizarre voice mail message were perfect:
She first called her attorney to discuss the message's content and whether it could be a terrible prank. Her attorney advised informing Brandeis authorities who have the appropriate means and resources to investigate.
Sure, it would have been easy for Ms. Hill to simply delete the message.
But I say BRAVO to her for not shying away. Again.
And Bravo to you too, WarriorJames!
UPDATE: This is strange. Both my comment (left at 8:03), and WarriorJames1 comment (left soon after mine) are now missing from Marcus's article. When these comments were posted, comments were coming in at about 2 per minute, but there is a 10 minute gap with no comments from 7:55 to 8:05 (at least they were when I checked a few minutes go). Weird.
--Trakker
Why Are Clarence and Virginia Thomas Still Harrassing Anita Hill?, comments.
Take it from the top (scroll up, first).
Posted by: horsec | October 21, 2010 at 02:21 PM
Very funny post and some great comments:
theDAWG said...
Wow, I feel dumb. All this time I assumed Clarence Thomas was married to Helen Thomas.
My bad.
Posted by: Trakker | October 21, 2010 at 02:51 PM