An ad placed in Wednesday’s issue of the New York Times is generating a lot of buzz as Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the GOP navigate multiple allegations from women accusing the nominee of past sexual misconduct. The ad is targeted to support the first woman to go public, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, and it references a 1991 ad in the same publication that supported Anita Hill.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to hear from both Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford in a hearing scheduled for Thursday. The committee has scheduled a vote on moving Kavanaugh’s nomination forward for Friday, but many wonder if that will go according to plan.
Now, in addition to the allegations from Ford, two separate women have gone public with allegations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh. Deborah Ramirez, a Yale classmate of the nominee, has said she is willing to testify about the incident she says involved Kavanaugh. On Wednesday, a third woman named Julie Swetnick also came forward will allegations that involve the current nominee. So far, the GOP has not signaled any willingness to hear from these women or pause Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Dr. Blasey Ford’s allegations and upcoming hearing are drawing many comparisons to Anita Hill’s testimony against then-nominee Clarence Thomas in 1991. At the time, 1,600 black women took out an ad in the New York Times signaling that they were standing behind Hill. Now, thanks in large part to efforts by the Phenomenal Woman Action Campaign and Futures Without Violence, a similar ad is now in the NYT .
“We believe Anita Hill. We also believe Christine Blasey Ford.”
1,600 men crowdfunded an ad in The New York Times to voice support for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, echoing a 1991 ad about Anita Hill that featured the names of 1,600 black women: pic.twitter.com/bNgJRDdOlb
— AJ+ (@ajplus) September 26, 2018
AdWeek shares that the new New York Times ad was crowdfunded in a Mighty Cause campaign that saw almost 3,000 donors and more than $136,000 in contributions. The ad says that they believe Anita Hill and they also believe Christine Blasey Ford. The center box of the ad explains that this is supported by 1,600 men who are allies in trying to end harassment and violence against women and they say they believe the survivors.
The names of 1,600 men who signed on to support the ad are in small print around the center box. While the ad featured 1,600 names, reports detail that more than 4,200 have signed the online petition associated with the effort. The original goal of the crowdsourcing campaign was the raise $100,000, and the money gathered in excess of that will be donated to Futures Without Violence.
At the end of the new ad, it notes that there is no way to redo 1991, the year that Anita Hill testified. However, it says that there are ways to do better. While Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has had many people step forward to voice their support for him, there seems to be a growing number of people across a multitude of different efforts doing what they can to support Dr. Christine Blasey Ford heading into Thursday’s hearing as well.
