Bonus #34: Believing

Anita Hill. 2021.

I don't think I can overstate the impact that Anita Hill has on my life.  As a college student, watching the Thomas confirmation hearing, seeing her testimony was life changing.  I was in awe of her strength. I saw her speak a few years ago and will admit to being star struck.  And while I knew that she went to Yale for law school and was a law school professor, it is easy to forget that had her experience with Thomas been different. If her life had been different, she could have been the first Black woman on the Court.  Because this book really highlights just how brilliant she is.  It is a historical analysis of sexual harassment law in the US, but written in a way that makes material normally present in a law school textbook accessible and readable.  Rather than being a memoir, it is a collection of stories from others (which are sometimes more graphic than they may have needed to be) along with the legal analysis.  I wish there had been more of her personal narrative, but I understand her protecting herself after being under so much scrutiny for so long.

After being horrified by the lack of modern analysis in Billie Jean King's book from last month, I was so impressed that Hill (a decade younger than King) has kept up with the nuance of race and gender in a way that makes it obvious that she is thoughtful and continues to be a leader in a movement that continues to move forward.  It is hard to feel like we are making progress, particularly in the wake of the Kavanaugh appointment, but when you pause to look back at life thirty years ago and remember what it was like then, how few public voices there were, that there was no public dialogue...it is a reminder that we have moved forward and that there is hope.

Recommend.

---