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While watching “Anita,” a documentary about Anita Hill directed by Freida Lee Mock, I couldn’t help but think about Twitter. Despite the fact that Twitter did not exist in 1991 when Hill gave her testimony before the Senate, I couldn’t help but wonder how things might have turned out had it been in existence. It is true that the court of public opinion has always been presided over by a hanging judge, but there was at least some time for a trial 23 years ago. Because of social media, you can be executed minutes after being accused of a crime.
Back in 1991, the only news sources available to us were CNN, the network news, and the newspapers. The gauntlet that the infamous had to run through was a real one, made up of photographers and journalists. In addition to that, there is now a virtual gauntlet that is far more difficult to navigate and can be extremely dangerous. Would Hill, who went on to become a well-known advocate for women’s and workplace rights while also continuing her teaching career, have been able to do so in today’s binary world? And would Thomas still be on the Supreme Court if that were to happen? The media explosions of today have the potential to devastate both sides.
In the case of CNN, the Anita Hill Senate hearings were the first major hit of ratings-based heroin in the network’s history. It is the story of how the now-standard 24-hour news cycle came to be, with its repetition and regurgitation of often false and unproven information for the sake of ratings. A supposedly private response to an FBI questionnaire during the Supreme Court justice vetting process turned into an extremely public, non-stop display of salacious details that had never before been uttered on national television in its entirety.
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To summarize, the following is true: Clarence Thomas, an African-American candidate for the Supreme Court, was appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1991 to succeed Thurgood Marshall, who had been the Supreme Court’s first appointee of color. It was discovered that a written statement from lawyer Anita Hill, in which she documented alleged workplace sexual harassment by Thomas, had been leaked during the vetting process. It was as a result of this that Hill appeared before a Senate committee in Washington D.C., where the homogeneous, all-male committee asked some cringe-inducing, logic-defying questions. “Anita” contains enough graphic footage to make one’s skin crawl, and it does so by directly answering the question of why so many women are hesitant to report workplace abuse, if they do so at all in the first place.
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Furthermore, these hearings took place at a particularly delicate intersection of race and gender issues. Using quotes from people such as Harvard Law professor Charles Ogletree and journalists Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson, the early sections of “Anita” get the most mileage out of this. Despite the fact that the majority of Americans were well aware of issues such as racism and civil rights by 1991, the concept of sexual harassment was still a foreign concept to the majority of the population at the time.
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During its running time, “Anita” alternates between the details and aftermath of the judiciary hearings and the story of Hill’s current position as an advocate for gender and workplace rights. Rather than attempting to change anyone’s mind about Hill, it chooses to focus instead on how the hearings brought sexual harassment into the public eye. To her credit, Oscar winner Mock and her interview subjects are willing to take on both political parties in their interviews. This includes our current Vice President, who receives one of the film’s more scathing remarks. The entire Senate commission is roasted in this film, including our current Vice President.
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Mock also provides airtime for the Brooklyn-based group Girls for Gender Equality, which has a presence on the show. Her pride at seeing young women involved in this cause is described as a “torch-passing,” which she believes instills optimism and hope for the future in the listeners. Hill appears in these scenes at the same time as footage of her speaking at a number of events commemorating the 20th anniversary of her Senate appearance. Hill maintains her poise and eloquence throughout, and she is unafraid to speak about her ordeal. She even manages to treat a voicemail from Thomas’ wife, in which she requests an apology, with a great deal more grace than is required.
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“Anita” is a serviceable, if not always riveting, documentary that serves as a documented record of Hill’s life and her accomplishments. However, I would have liked to have seen more time spent on both the hearings and Hill’s activism. Things like corporate diversity training and sexual harassment prevention classes would have been welcome to be discussed, or at the very least mentioned, as a result of the increasing number of complaints and increased awareness that have resulted from this highly publicized case.
Even as the credits began to roll, I couldn’t stop thinking about how this case would be tried in the virtual world of Twitter. Hill takes us to a basement that is filled with file cabinets towards the end of the film. Inside are letters she’s received over the course of the nearly two decades since her testimony. A typewritten letter is pulled from a file, and the tangible physicality of the letter feels quaint, like a throwback to a time when you had time to think before expressing your support or bile, depending on your point of view. Typing, stamping, and mailing a letter would take an eternity by today’s standards, and it would lack the instant gratification of letting the rest of the world know what you’ve done.
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