So now this morning we are starting
off with a guest who stood up and
shared her truth long before the Me
2 movement and don't get me wrong,
there were plenty of women who
watched and silently said me too.
That was 30 years ago when 29
year old Anita Hill stood alone
on Capitol Hill back in 1991.
The University of Oklahoma law professor
testified in the confirmation hearings for
Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.
She testified that Thomas,
her former boss.
Had sexually harassed her and the rest
became history as well as our future.
Fresh produce swear to tell
the whole truth and nothing
but the truth so help you God.
Prior to 1991, women facing sexual
harassment was not something new,
but sharing stories of
gender violence was taboo.
As a nation, we listened and watched.
We grappled with racial issues.
A woman's place in the world that
very much believed in a boys will
be boys mindset and heard political
leaders downplay the negative
experiences that Anita Hill endure.
In the end, Thomas was confirmed,
but a national conversation about
gender misconduct in the workplace.
Had begun, some inroads were made
then the me two movement ignited
a new generation and put the
conversation of gender violence
back into the national dialogue.
In her new book,
believing Professor Hill helps us
understand the crisis of gender,
violence and what we must do now to stop it.
It is important to know that
I testified that one day,
but then the experience continued
because I was called upon to explain
over and over again why I had testified,
why my testimony was important so it
didn't end when I left Washington DC.
People talk about courage and I think
you know courage is not something
that that you have to exhibit once.
Sometimes you have to exhibit
over and over again to get.
Through where did I get the strength?
I got it from my family.
I got it from a very supportive environment.
Some colleagues that were very
supportive at my in my workplace,
upbringing in the church that
you draw on so many things,
including you know your history and your
understanding that this is a problem
that has been going on that other
people have experienced that really
sort of gave me a sense of urgency.
About what I had to do and what I
wanted the world to do in response,
I remember
hearing the reports that you
faced backlash as both a vocal
survivor and a black woman.
Do you talk about that in your book?
What was particularly troubling to me
as as a woman who identified as Black,
who had worked in civil rights areas
who really grew up understanding
of benefit that I had had from.
On civil rights, movement and court cases,
it was really disturbing when many
people in the African American community
rejected my testimony and many thought
that even if what I said was true,
I shouldn't step forward.
I shouldn't have testified against
a black man who was powerful and
would be seen as a success story
in African American community.
What I do when I talk about it in the book.
As I talk about how you have to deal
with racist of this history of racism
that we've experienced to really
be able to eliminate gender based
violence fully against women of color,
it's not enough to deal with racism.
But it is important that we deal with
racism because racism overlaps with misogyny.
Recently, President Biden apologized
to you for what you went through
during the committee hearings.
Did you feel that it was genuine
or an empty gesture as he cleared
a path to the White House,
he was 28 years after.
After the hearing, I really wasn't so
interested in why there wasn't, you know,
evaluating whether it was an empty gesture.
What I was running at that point at 28
years of dealing with this myself and
processing it for myself was I wanted
him to be forward thinking, not just.
Apologize for the path,
but as someone who was about to run
for president and I wanted to hear his
commitment to addressing the issue,
that was still prevalent and
harmful in our society,
and so I really wanted to hear.
I'm sorry about what happened to you,
but I understand that it was bigger than you.
Now I understand the problem for what it is,
that it's something that is plaguing our
nation and that it should be a presidential.
Priority I'm still very hopeful that there
will be actions taken that show a real
commitment and a willingness to commit
resources to acknowledge the problem.
What it is for, what it is to commit,
resources to understand how it impacts
so many different aspects of our lives,
whether it's you know, of course,
that education and workplace,
but it also impacts, you know,
our housing opportunities.
Our safety and security on the street.
The criminal justice system,
of course,
because of the low rate of prosecutions
of sexual harassment or excuse me,
sexual assault and rape cases
a lot a few years back,
where the way we perceive something with
gender violence is not being so bad.
Like you mentioned before,
there's a lot of different layers
or the term boys will be boys.
I know that's a term that we've
gotten a lot of focus on lately.
What damage does this do,
and how can we change it to help?
Well, let me just tell you a story.
I get a lot of emails and I you know,
a lot of emails from different organizations
that are representing individuals
who have been abused or harassed,
or or violated in any number of ways.
And I got one from an
organization representing girls
saying why we need Title 9.
It was written by a girl in elementary
school and she said that her first
experience with sexual assault was
when she was in the first grade,
so she told her teacher and the teacher
ended up suspending this girl's recess
privileges because the teacher said the
girl was being inappropriate in talking
about what had happened to her so.
Think about what kind of damage
that does to a child a child they
learn not to trust the system not
to trust adults to protect them.
Well, they learn to internalize it,
and you know what?
It's also telling the boy that abused
her that it's OK for him to behave in
this way and nothing will be done.
There won't be no circumstances
or or any kind of consequences.
So what we're doing is we're grooming people.
Not to come forward,
not to trust our system,
not to trust even their own feelings.
We have got to as a culture deal with
the cultural messages that we are
sending people because the same people
will say to that girl when she's 25
years old and gets harassed in the workplace.
They'll say, why didn't you come forward?
Yeah, why didn't you come
forward so as though it's her,
she's the blame.
For the problem,
there's work to be done really in terms
of the language we use and the message
that we're sending to our children.