Column: They All Had Advanced Degrees

This past fall break weekend was certainly not the best public relations event for Justice Clarence Thomas, Professor Anita Hill or the U.S. Senate (particularly Ted Kennedy.) Possibly, the only person, or legend, that benfitted from the hearings was Long Dong Silver. In all seriousness, however, these hearings did illustrate the confusion, explosiveness and divisiveness created by the issue of sexual harassment. One can only hope that these hearings will produce more than a trendy analysis of, and response to, sexual harassment. For if Anita Hill was telling the truth, which I think she was, it is horrifying to think how many other women have had similar experiences but declined to file a grievance or a suit out of fear of demotion or termination. Who knows? Maybe Professor Hill was coaxed into testifying for financial or political gains, however, that should not shrink the gravity of the allegations because they just might be true, nor should it tarnish or diminish her character. If anyone deserves criticism for the tardiness of these allegations surfacing, it is that bastion of American leadership -- the U.S. Senate. The Senate, which had been aware of these allegations for at least a month, planned to skip right over this issue, until fortunately, journalists Nina Totenberg and Timothy Phelps, as a result of a leak, investigated and wrote a story. · Indeed, the hearing furnished America with a dose of radicalism. Aside from pubic hairs on coke cans, big-breasted women and animals having sex (Damn, Clarence, what were you thinking?) and Long Dong Silver being discussed on national television, there were two other radical outcomes of the hearing. The hearing was one of the first -- if not the first -- times since I've been alive that a black man, while in the process of defending himself, was categorically defending white men. Sexual harrasment in the workplace is normally initiated by white men simply because the overwhelming majority of American managers are white and male. Thomas's defense testimony, in effect, united black and white men for about four days by shoving aside race and replacing it with gender. You know deep down inside that Senator Kennedy and the rest of the Judiciary Commitee sympathized a bit with old Judge Thomas. This all goes to show that if women are tired of being labeled "fantasizers," liars and perjurers when it comes to this issue, women are going to have to step up to the political plate in 1992 with bat in hand, ready to swing. One has to wonder how the committee and the full Senate would have voted if the Senate had 52 women and 48 men. (The present make-up is 98 men and 2 women. But that's American Democracy, right.) The second radical thing about the hearing was that it marked the first time in American television history that every black person on the air over a consecutive four-day period had a college degree. Most of them even had graduate degrees. I realized that fall break weekend would be historic when the perennial cellar dwellers of baseball's National League Western Division, the Atlanta Braves, were still in contention to advance to the World Series, but the scene at the hearing was unbelievable. It was the most educated and enlightened group of blacks ever assembled for a television show or miniseries. I can remember the days when the evening news, Sanford and Son (God rest Redd Foxx's soul,) Good Times (where the hell is Jimmie Walker now?) and Roots would be the only shows where one could see blacks regularly. Today, of course, there is The Cosby Show, A Different World, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air et al., but not even Cosby could compete with all of the Yale law degrees and Harvard business degrees (and all of these degrees are legitimate because remember, black conservatives don't endorse or benefit from affirmative action programs) populating the hearing room throughout this television bonanza. As a matter of fact, excluding the senators, Clarence Thomas might have been the least qualified person in the room. Heck, at least Anita Hill had an opinion. Harold Ford is a senior History major from Memphis, Tennessee. Say It Loud usually appears alternate Thursdays.

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