“We are particularly outraged by the racist and sexist treatment of Professor Anita Hill, an African American woman who was maligned and castigated for daring to speak publicly of her own experience of sexual abuse,” the ad sad. “We pledge ourselves to continue to speak out in defense of one another, in defense of the African American community and against those who are hostile to social justice no matter what color they are.” “No one will speak for us but ourselves,” the ad read, and unfortunately, those sentiments still ring true. Although the same ad was replicated by 1600 men in support of Ford, who also said they believed Hill, there are still men out there who don’t believe women. And they make up the Senate Judiciary Panel.27 years ago, 1600 black women took out a full page ad in the NYT to show support for Anita Hill. I was 20 years old. I put $25 toward the price of the ad and signed my name. pic.twitter.com/I9AvWsoeGm
— Tayari Jones (@tayari) September 19, 2018
White men once again tried to discredit a woman’s story of sexual assault. Once again, how could the sentiment of believing a woman get lost? Did we not learn anything from Hill’s testimony? How dare Ford accuse a former choir boy of sexually assaulting her? How dare Ford accuse an all-star high school athlete? How dare she take 36 years to come forward? Although 1600 men did pledge their support for Ford and Hill, what good does it make when the men running the government couldn’t give a damn about a #MeToo movement? They don’t care that a woman held on to this story for 36 years and had to live through the effects of PTSD. Sure, I could point out that Ford, as a white woman, may have had more support than Hill, but as a woman, who looked at the faces of so many white men today, I can only think to myself that still, all we have are ourselves. Well except for the 53% who voted for Trump, or the ones who are proudly supporting Kavanaugh, we don’t want or need those women.I hope the images coming out of the #KavanaughHearings remind y’all that we live in a society quite literally ruled by wealthy (white) men. We’ve been taught to normalize our nation’s gendered/racial oppression but this is what an extremist white-patriarchal regime looks like. pic.twitter.com/8e3dhKou4d
— Crystal Marie Fleming 🌈💜💖 (@alwaystheself) September 27, 2018