Anita Hill Talks Sexual Harassment And HBO’s ‘Confirmation’

HBO’s Confirmation is a film dramatizing the events surrounding the senate hearings to confirm Clarence Thomas’ appointment to the United States Supreme Court, and in particular, the sexual harassment allegations against Thomas made by a former co-worker, Anita Hill.

Receiving rave reviews from critics, Confirmation tells the story of Anita Hill’s role in the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, which continues to be a source of controversy surrounding the conservative Supreme Court justice. But today, the real Anita Hill is now a professor at Brandeis University.

Anita Hill, who is played by Kerry Washington in HBO’s Confirmation, spoke with Time Magazine about the film, her allegations against Clarence Thomas, and what it was like to live through such a pivotal moment in American history.

A moment that shaped history.

Uncover more behind the controversy April 16 on HBO in #Confirmation.https://t.co/AnfcHeIXov

— HBO (@HBO) April 5, 2016

“The film depicts an important moment in our history, it’s part of our fabric. Twenty-five years later we have an entire generation of people who were not even born at that time, [Confirmation] will help them understand where we come from and hopefully give them information to keep going forward,” said Anita Hill while speaking with Time Magazine about the HBO film Confirmation.

Anita Hill came forward with allegations of sexual harassment against Clarence Thomas after the federal court judge was nominated to the United States Supreme Court. The following press coverage was both politically charged and historically significant. Vanity Fair reports that record numbers of women entered the political arena in the United States after the Anita Hill hearings. Hill, who came forward with allegations of sexual harassment that were backed up by several other sources, including other former coworkers of Clarence Thomas, was largely dismissed by the Senate Committee overseeing the confirmation hearings.

“I expected a fair process. If you file a sexual harassment complaint in an office, what you find is the best instances is a neutral investigative process. That never happened. I did expect that the chair would be fair and gather testimony from relevant witnesses, like the three other women who were not called in to testify,” said Anita Hill in her interview with Time Magazine today.

Anita Hill criticized the Joe Biden-led hearings, which she suggested didn’t give her a fair shake. They didn’t investigate the sexual harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas, not even with the same rigor one would expect in an office job anywhere in the United States. Anita Hill even suggests that the confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas wouldn’t have even taken place if he’d been nominated today. The sexual harassment allegations alone would have been enough to disqualify the controversial Supreme Court Justice.

Clarence Thomas, for his part, called the whole process a “high-tech lynching,” which he suggested was a result of his race and not his alleged professional misconduct, which was highly criticized by former co-workers and staff, some of whom corroborated Anita Hill’s testimony. Hill stated that his remarks were painful for her, because, as an African-American woman, Clarence Thomas was trying to change the conversation to make a gender issue into a race issue.

Anita Hill on HBO's #Confirmation, female leadership & the relevance of this story 25 yrs on https://t.co/dwzSTnHJpQ pic.twitter.com/DCnFvHa74w

— The Mary Sue (@TheMarySue) April 7, 2016

“It was very painful personally, because what I felt was being said was that his experience as an African-American man mattered more to the race than my experience as an African-American woman,” said Anita Hill today, speaking with Time Magazine about the HBO film Confirmation.

Anita Hill’s allegations of sexual harassment against Clarence Thomas were corroborated by other women who worked with Thomas. Some journalists had even dug into Thomas’ past and discovered shocking things about his sexual history and his habits and obsession with porn, according to the New York Daily News. But by the time that information was gathered by journalists covering the story, Clarence Thomas had already been confirmed to the Supreme Court.

“I felt as though it again dismissed all African-American women and the significance of our racial experience. I think it was deliberately excluded,” said Anita Hill today, speaking to Time Magazine.

HBO’s Confirmation will air on the premium network on April 16, 2015.

[Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP]