41. Believing Her: The Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill Hearings at 30

Intersectionality Matters!

Intersectionality Matters with Kimberlé Crenshaw

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4.7 • 814 Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2021

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Thirty years ago this week, Anita Hill sat across an all-male, all-white Senate Judiciary Committee to testify that her boss, Supreme Court Justice nominee Clarence Thomas, had sexually harassed her. A historic moment that brought visibility to the issue of sexual harassment, Anita's bravery during the 1991 confirmation hearing set the stage for countless others to better understand and speak out against their own experiences of gender-based violence. Decades later, questions of how gender-based violence intersects with race and power remain as relevant as ever. On this special anniversary episode, Kimberlé and Luke Charles Harris, co-founder of the African American Policy Forum, reflect on their memory of being at the 1991 confirmation hearing and the lessons learned through Clarence Thomas' confirmation that inspired AAPF's birth. With excerpts from a recent conversation between Kimberlé and Anita Hill, this episode examines the legacy of Black women's truth telling, the persistence of gender-based violence, and the intersectional politics needed to pave a new way forward. With: LUKE CHARLES HARRIS - Co-Founder, the African American Policy Forum; Associate Professor of American Politics and Constitutional Law, Vassar College ANITA HILL - Professor of Social Policy, Law, and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Brandeis University, Lawyer, and Legal Scholar; Author, Believing: Our Thirty-Year Journey to End Gender Violence Hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw (@sandylocks) Produced and edited by Julia Sharpe-Levine Co-produced by Ashley Julien Supported provided by Destiny Spruill, Rebecca Scheckman, and the African American Policy Forum Music by Blue Dot Sessions Follow us at @intersectionalitymatters, @IMKC_podcast

Transcript

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0:00.0	The 2024 presidential election was marked by soaring highs and crushing lows. Black women, 91% of whom turned out for VP Harris, once again proved to be the most engaged, progressive, and resilient voting bloc.
0:16.0	In an election campaign where rampant sexism and racism was directed not only at Harris,
0:22.1	but at black women more broadly, the misogy noir we just witnessed is already being written
0:27.0	out of the analysis of what actually happened.
0:30.0	There seems to be a widening gap between what black women experienced and what the
0:34.1	pundit and political classes choose to talk about.
0:37.3	So join host Kimberly Crenshaw for a virtual under the blacklight conversation on December 3rd at 7 p.m. Eastern.
0:45.7	Black women advocates, activists, and analysts will offer their side of the story about the election
0:50.9	and highlight the risks to our democracy if we continue to erase black women
0:56.2	and their experiences. Register for free at Bitley slash Election 24 Road Ahead. That's Bitley
1:04.5	slash Election 24 Road Ahead. I'm Kimberly Crenshaw, and this is intersectionality matters.
1:14.5	The podcast that brings intersectionality to life by exploring the hidden dimensions of today's
1:20.6	most pressing issues, from say her name and COVID to the war on CRT and the global rise of
1:27.3	fascism. This idea travelogue and the global rise of fascism.
1:28.3	This idea travelogue lifts up the work of leading activists, artists, and scholars
1:33.3	and helps listeners understand politics, the law, social movements,
1:38.3	and even their own lives in deeper, more nuanced ways.
1:57.6	Members of the committee, my name is Anita F. Hill, and I am a professor of law at the University of Oklahoma.
2:02.6	For many Americans, Anita Hill is best known for the landmark testimony that she delivered during the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 1991.
2:07.6	After approximately three months of working there, he asked me to go out socially with him.
2:15.6	What happened next and telling the world about it
2:20.6	are the two most difficult things, experiences of my life.
	...

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