‘I will not retreat now’
Some had hoped that Christine Blasey Ford would have attended the event, but she has remained out of sight since she testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month
SANTA CLARA >> Anita Hill, whose historic testimony against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas 27 years ago transformed the women’s movement, implored an enthusiastic crowd on Tuesday to keep up the fight despite being “jolted back to the past, a past we all believed we as a nation had grown beyond.”
“No one imagined that a Supreme Court nomination could return so many men and women to the pain of the past,” Hill said of the recent confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh who was accused of sexual assault. “We could not imagine that an eloquent
and thoughtful and sincere Christine Blasey Ford would speak to a group of senators whose interest was not in getting the truth, but was with getting on with their own particular agenda.”
Some 1,900 people, mostly women, packed the annual YWCA Silicon Valley luncheon at the Santa Clara Convention Center and twice gave Hill standing ovations. A choral group from Notre Dame High School in San Jose wore T-shirts that read, “I believe Anita & Christine & You.”
Many had hoped that Blasey Ford would have attended the event, but the Palo Alto University psychology professor who received death threats when she came forward has
remained out of sight since she testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month and accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault when they were teenagers.
“We all would have loved to see her,” said Joelle Molloy, a recent law school graduate and homeless advocate who traveled from Los Angeles to attend the event. “It might take her another 20 years to recover and speak again, but we will keep fighting.”
Nonetheless, Hill, a professor of social policy, law and women’s and gender studies at Brandeis University, energized the crowd, saying she understood the discouragement many women feel after
“Of course, you’re thinking, has anything changed? I would say absolutely. Even though we are in these grim times, I would say absolutely things have changed.” — Anita Hill
Kavanaugh — like Thomas in 1991 — was confirmed to the Supreme Court.
“Of course, you’re thinking, has anything changed? I would say absolutely,” Hill said. “Even though we are in these grim times, I would say absolutely things have changed. We have changed as a society. Thirty years ago at this luncheon, if we would have talked of sexual harassment, many of you wouldn’t know what we were talking about.”
Still, she said, “we have got to get to a point where being believed is not a privilege, it is a right.”
Hill’s Capitol Hill testimony helped usher in a wave of women to office during the 1992 election, including the country’s first two female senators from one state — Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer of California. Unlike in 1991 when the Senate
Judiciary Committee was made up entirely of men, Feinstein sat on the committee during the Kavanaugh hearings.
Hill took issue with critics of Blasey Ford, who contended during the hearings that her testimony wasn’t
enough to disqualify Kavanaugh and that he should be held to the standard of “innocent until proven guilty.”
“That is the basic principle of American law as it applies to criminal proceedings,” Hill said. “It is not a
basic principle of American law that applies to political proceedings. There is no right to a position on the Supreme Court. It’s a privilege to be earned.”
However, she said, just as she would never support a process that violates the rights of the accused in criminal settings, “I will also not have anything to do with a process that presumes that women lie about experiencing sexual violence. The evidence is too clear.”
Tanis Crosby, CEO of the YWCA of Silicon Valley, said there is reason to be optimistic in Santa Clara County alone.
The county recently committed to a 30-day turnaround of processing rape kits and approved an initiative to improve sexual violence education.
Still, she said, sexual assault claims in San Jose have risen 40 percent in the last three years.
“More and more people are reporting and asking and receiving help,” Crosby said. “This is a mountain we are all climbing and we are taking it with each step. We will continue to center our work on the needs of survivors.”
Hill had been invited to the YWCA event months before Blasey Ford came forward in August with her claims against Kavanaugh.
The luncheon sold out weeks ago and the attendees included numerous local politicians and candidates.
For Gea Hammer Carr, who serves on the YWCA’s executive board, Tuesday’s event, in its own small way, helped change the narrative of Hill’s treatment on Capitol Hill in 1991.
“To have her sell out this place — in a way it’s a little redemption,” Carr said. “To me, it feels like people are validating what she has to say now.”
Carr’s 26-year-old daughter, Birtu Belete, born the year after Hill’s testimony, said that while “it’s easy to be discouraged” after Kavanaugh’s confirmation, “it’s important to persevere.”
That’s the message Hill came here to deliver:
“I have been on this path for 27 years,” Hill said, “and I will not retreat now.”