Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Is Virginia Thomas Serious?

It has been nearly two decades since Anita Hill swore before Congress that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had made inappropriate sexual comments towards her while she worked under him at the DOE and at EEOC. Hill's comments were backed by numerous sources, with one of his former employees saying, "If you were young, black, female and reasonably attractive, you knew full well you were being inspected and auditioned as a female." Yet despite all of this, Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, has called Anita Hill and asked for an apology.

This is just another chapter in the book that is the Thomas' craziness. We can all remember the utmost ridiculous statement during the proceedings, when Clarence Thomas accused the Senate committee investigating Hill's claims of lynching him:
This is not an opportunity to talk about difficult matters privately or in a closed environment. This is a circus. It's a national disgrace. And from my standpoint, as a black American, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. Senate rather than hung from a tree.
You want to silence a room of a bunch of old white guys (read: senators) just use the word lynch, nevermind accuse said old white guys of doing it. I bet most victims of true lynching would have much rather sat before a Senate committee and answered to legitimate criticisms of sexual harassment than be strung up in a tree based on nothing at all. Akin to when a woman falsely cries rape, Thomas' assertion of a "high-tech lynching" is an insult to all who have truly suffered from the horrific act.

Of course, Virginia Thomas is no bastion of sanity herself. If this ridiculous voicemail does not convince you, her stances on certain issues might. She was against the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (allowing employees unpaid leave with job protection should they become too ill to work or have to care for a new child) and has now formed a new group called Liberty Central based on tea party ideals. She has also called the presidency of Barack Obama a "tyranny." Again, a hyperbole insulting to all who actually live under tyrannical rule in this world.

But the real issue here is the anger and the inability of both Thomases to just get over it. Hill brought legitimate claims against Thomas to which he had to answer (but really didn't, instead calling the committee's work a "lynching"). When someone legitimately accuses you of something, you answer to it. Of all professions, a lawyer ought to know this; it's called life. All Virginia Thomas' voicemail does at this point is bring up the fact that most of the country thought her husband was the kind of boss to ask about pubic hairs on his Coke can. Bravo, Virginia. Bravo.

Photo - The Thomases (CBS News)

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