EVERY week, when the national best-seller's list is printed, I scan the titles for a particular book published by Doubleday -- the one that I have just finished reading -- but never see it. There must be some mistake, I think perplexedly. The mountain climbed
by Ms. Anita HillOther people must be interested in "Speaking Truth to Power," the autobiography of Anita Hill. Surely folks want to know what compelled the University of Oklahoma law professor, back in 1991, to publicly testify against the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Isn't anyone else curious about what happened since her relentless public grilling by the Senate Judiciary Committee, especially now that her name is synonymous with charges of sexual harassment in the workplace?
Apparently not, which unhappily proves the main point of Hill's reflective tome -- America has a long way to go when it comes to actively and effectively dealing with the mistreatment of women in the office environment.
Hill had the misfortune of being a double minority -- a black woman -- when she told the world about Thomas' inappropriate behavior while working for him in Washington, D.C.
Some of those allegations, especially shocking because he had been in charge of the Office of Civil Rights and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, included pressuring her for dates and making inappropriate sexual innuendoes.
After quitting and moving on to a career in teaching, Hill tried to leave his noxious behavior in the past. However, when Thomas was picked to become a Supreme Court justice, she was sought out by federal investigators and her story extracted, unwillingly.
Her book details the subsequent attempts to suppress her tale and to taint her reputation, not only by the Bush administration, the Senate, pro-conservatives, the media, associates and students at her own university, and complete strangers, but Thomas himself.
Hill also reflects on other high-profile harassment cases, including that of the first woman to file a formal complaint over the notorious Tailhook incident:
"When I think of Paula Coughlin, I am frightened for her and for many other women in military and civilian service who have attempted to pursue careers and press their claims of harassment or other forms of sexual abuse. Two dozen women formally complained of being raped or sexually assaulted by fellow military personnel during the Gulf War. Such cases seem always to precede a cover-up or mismanaged investigations and result in termination of the complainant's career.
"What is equally devastating is that the sexual harassment not only spoils careers but shatters dreams. Women in the 1980s were told that sexism was dead -- that it was safe to have dreams and best to dream big. Unredressed sexual harassment not only takes away our dignity but spoils our belief in ourselves and in the fairness of life and conveys the message that dreams are pointless."
ANITA Hill learned, first hand, that women's dreams are not only elusive, but sometimes they can turn into living nightmares, especially when trying to contradict the agenda of this nation's power elite. The absence of "Speaking Truth to Power" on the bestseller's list may mean two things -- and neither is very assuring to those who care about women's rights in the workplace.
People don't believe Professor Hill or they don't want to believe her. They can't. Because if they do, then something must be done.