Race-Ing Justice, En-Gendering Power: Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the Construction of Social Reality

by Toni Morrison (Editor, Introduction), Andrew Ross (Contributor), Manning Marable (Contributor)

It was perhaps the most wretchedly aspersive race and gender scandal of recent the dramatic testimony of Anita Hill at the Senate hearings on the confirmation of Clarence Thomas as Supreme Court Justice. Yet even as the televised proceedings shocked and galvanized viewers not only in this country but the world over, they cast a long shadow on essential issues that define America.

In Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power, Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison contributes an introduction and brings together eighteen provocative essays, all but one written especially for this book, by prominent and distinguished academicians—Black and white, male and female. These writings powerfully elucidate not only the racial and sexual but also the historical, political, cultural, legal, psychological, and linguistic aspects of a signal and revelatory moment in American history.

With contributions
Homi K. Bhabha, Margaret A. Burnham, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Paula Giddings, A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., Claudia Brodsky Lacour, Wahneema Lubiano, Manning Marable, Nellie Y. McKay, Toni Morrison, Nell Irvin Painter, Gayle Pemberton, Andrew Ross, Christine Stansell, Carol M. Swain, Michael Thelwell, Kendall Thomas, Cornel West, Patricia J. Williams

Genres: Nonfiction, Race, Essays, Politics, Feminism, Social Justice, Gender Studies

475 pages, Paperback

First published October 6, 1992

About the author

Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison, known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist and editor. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed Song of Solomon (1977) brought her national attention and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1988, Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved (1987); she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.
Born and raised in Lorain, Ohio, Morrison graduated from Howard University in 1953 with a B.A. in English. Morrison earned a master's degree in American Literature from Cornell University in 1955. In 1957 she returned to Howard University, was married, and had two children before divorcing in 1964. Morrison became the first black female editor for fiction at Random House in New York City in the late 1960s. She developed her own reputation as an author in the 1970s and '80s. Her novel Beloved was made into a film in 1998. Morrison's works are praised for addressing the harsh consequences of racism in the United States and the Black American experience.
The National Endowment for the Humanities selected Morrison for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities, in 1996. She was honored with the National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters the same year. President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on May 29, 2012. She received the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction in 2016. Morrison was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2020.

Reviews

[N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book #1 read for Black History Month, 2024

“The points of the vector were all the plateaus of power and powerlessness” (Morrison ix).

This is essential reading that was edited by America’s former greatest living writer.

I was surprised that Morrison had edited such a collection that really established her as a formidable political critic against American conservatism and hypocrisy.

These essays were about the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas in 1992 by former President George H. Bush.

It is also how law Professor Anita Hill stood up to Judge Thomas and spoke her truth that she had been sexually harassed- setting off a firestorm that branded her as a woman not to be trusted or believed.

Hill was seen as someone who was trying her best at preventing Thomas from being confirmed as a Supreme Court justice.

This was a time where she was scorned by the black community; thrown to the wolves by the Democrats who remained silent (including former Senator, currently President Biden, former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who did not listen to her) and Republicans who unsurprisingly, slandered her name for the purpose of getting their political agenda passed.

Though this all happened in the early 1990s, it is still relevant that women’s voices, and black women’s voices are still not being heard, which makes for relevant reading.

It seems not much has changed from 1992 to the present. Kimberle Crenshaw makes this known, “if black women continue to be silenced and their stories ignored, we are doomed to have but a limited grasp of the full range of problems we currently face” (Morrison & Crenshaw 436).

Morrison edited 18 essays from academics who had much to criticize about the way Professor Hill had been treated and writes about the legacies of body shaming and racism black women faced then, still relevant now.

In connecting to how she examines the how and why of what has happened in her novels (“The Bluest Eye”, “Beloved”, “Jazz” come into mind) she writes that through compiling these essays, it is to “know what took place summary is enough, but to learn what happened requires multiple points of address and analysis”(Morrison xi).

Andrew Ross writes, “the feel of the testimony announced that the rules were being challenged, especially the separation between private and public as it is regulated in the law of the land…the letter of the law might have been absent, but the spirit of the law with all of its ideological trappings was all too present” (Morrison & Ross 47). For Hill, this was not so. Biden reminds Thomas that “the presumption is with you”—where it is at “odds with the sexual harassment policy drawn up at Thomas’s own EEOC” (Morrison & Ross 52).

Hypocrisy is ever present, and no one is doing the right thing in defending Professor Hill’s allegations and voice.

Morrison includes scholars who also focus on language that is used to degrade Hill’s claims.

Rhetoric is a powerful thing that can be used to degrade, “the arc of the universe curve towards freedom…[but] under Bush and Reagan, refused its clear responsibility to lead on the question of racial justice, and indeed, becomes the agent of reaction, we have all suffered” (Morrison & Thelwell 103).

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting commentary. I purchased this book over 20 years ago. I remember Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas and I remember the confirmation hearing being televised. I was very young and in the military at the time so I had no real understanding of all of the politics and culture wars taking place in the chamber. Fast forward 23 years and this book is so very relevant. Especially after the recent death of Justice Scalia and the Senate Leader's response. What is about to happen is nothing new but it is really a commentary on the state of democracy and the culture wars still being fought today. But as this book reminded me, there are always countless agendas at play. These essays were written fairly soon after Thomas's confirmation to the Supreme Court. The authors had no idea what kind of Justice he would become. This collection of 18 essays covered a variety of angles of the confirmation hearing, including the treatment of the nominee and of Anita Hill. The culture of the early 90s that led to preconceived notions about gender, race, class, and intelligence. The motivations of the Senators and the organizations such as NAACP and NOW. Anita Hill was seen as a feminist puppet, threat to the patriarchy. Tremendous gender politics and what constitutes sexual harassment in the workplace to an all-male panel. Racial politics abounded as well with African American groups unsure of whether to support Thomas simply because he was African American. And also about the cynical decision to nominate Thomas in a successful attempt to conflate loyalties of groups that would normally have been against the nominee on his merits (or lack thereof).

It would seem that Thomas's performance on the court was entirely predictable based on these essays. Thomas has not changed, rendering their predictions somewhat prescient. The opening essay in my mind was one of the most affecting with Judge A. Leon Higginbotham writing a letter to Thomas requesting that he fully consider his personal history as well as his legacy in replacing Thurgood Marshall. The last two essays consider the treatment of Anita Hill and the sexist and highly racialized climate associated with her testimony and questions. Essentially they made the confirmation about whether or not these men believed her testimony. She was painted by some as emotionally unstable and her experiences were marginalized primarily of the basis of cultural stereotypes and how well she fit certain modes. One of the essays was written about the media coverage of the nominee (mostly print) and how they managed to subordinate Hill to Thomas in the way that they published and placed pictures. There were essays about the mood of the country during these hearings. Cornell West wrote an essay about what he felt was the misguided and terrible behavior of the black leadership during that period. There were essays on Thomas's projected image compared to facts. There were essays about the Senate from a party perspective (Democrats and Republicans).

Most of the essays were top notch. A couple of essays were repetitive and some in my mind unnecessarily difficult to understand (writer chose complex language requiring a dictionary for every other word). Took a month to read because it was analog (a real book). All in all a very interesting look back to a time I thought was interesting but ultimately had no lasting impact in terms of social/cultural changes (impacts based on the actual hearings, not Thomas's impacts as a Supreme Court Justice). This book reminded me of how wrong I was...

[Matt Sautman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of essays relating to a piece of recent history that has somewhat faded away into obscurity. The essays in this volume are powerful, but some have more enlightening things to say than others. It can be hard powering through it the way one might read other anthologies, but particular essays within the collection make it where I cannot feel comfortable giving the overall work anything less than 4 stars.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

two decades after the Hill/Thomas hearings, this book remains highly relevant. i learned a lot about Thomas, i had no idea that he had few qualifications before being nominated to SCOTUS. aside from Professor Hill’s abuse and mistreatment at the hands of thomas and the all white male judiciary committee, the most horrifying part of this book is the story of thomas disparaging his sister for being on welfare while she was caring for a sick family member.

overall, i learned so much. each of the authors had a unique approach to analyzing the hearings and i felt like i’ve gained a thorough understanding of the event. please read this!!!

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book shortly after the inauguration to hopefully gain some insight from history, and I was not disappointed on that front. It was hard to read Toni Morrison say that only a black man could get away with sexual assault incrimination and still attain such a high office, and then compare that to where we are today-- and to think, he may get to appoint several Supreme Court Justices-- and it was hard to read and know that the man described in all these powerful essays is still alive, still holds this position, and still gets to rule on our law to this day. The essays are so smart and had such a clear message that it felt like it should be reading about ancient history and not someone still relevant to our politics. It made me angry! And scared for the future.

I learned so much from this book, but it is probably most recommended cover to cover only for someone doing specific research on Clarence Hill or Anita Hill. It was very repetitive after a while as most of the authors hold the same general opinion and just analyzed it through different lenses or applied it to different things. I made a note at one point wishing that there were mini-bios or introductions for the authors to help frame the essays in a different light and help each to stand out more, but I did discover that there was one in the back of the book, once I'd finished the whole thing.

[Kallie · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many of the issues thoroughly analyzed and discussed in this book of essays still affect social and economic justice in this country. George H. Bush et al. hornswoggled, via dishonest rhetoric, the appointment of Clarence Thomas -- a sexist and yes racist conservative who had stalled the Civil Rights work of the EEOC -- to the Supreme Court where he still resides, helping to undermine all social progress and justice for people of color and women. And decades later, in a similarly disingenuous resort to rhetoric that referred to "witch burning," those same conservative enemies of democracy gave us Kavanaugh. Both men were promoted, dishonestly, as qualified "best" candidates when really, all we can count on them for is support of any radically "conservative" agenda. Margaret Burnham: "Above all, what this nomination process taught is that black progress and progress for women are inextricably linked in contemporary American politics, and that each group suffers when it fails to grasp the dimensions of the other's struggle. It will take careful strategies and strong coalitions to revers these setbacks." And as we have seen, the setbacks continue.

[kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A variety of essays by a variety of personalities on racism, sexism, and feminism introduced quite eloquently by Morrison - relevant not only in terms of the Clarence Thomas issue, but the divisiveness of American society.

[Jake Mintz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great book from Morrison! Loved it!

[Mary Sisney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, published in 1992, is especially interesting now because of the METOO movement, which has resurrected Anita Hill, and the Kavanaugh hearing. Although I found the OJ essays in the other collection edited by Morrison more interesting, I learned more from these essays that focused on the court and politics as well as on race, gender, and sex. Probably because the Thomas-Hill hearing took place over a few days in October when I was busy teaching, I didn't know as much about what was going on as I thought I did. I didn't, for instance, know that Hill was a Bork-supporting conservative. If I had, I would have been neutral instead of on her side because she was a dark-skinned, single, female professor (like guess who). I also didn't know that Thomas had criticized his sister as dependent on welfare or that he suggested that Hill was jealous because he preferred light-skinned women. But the information that was most interesting involved the courts. I didn't realize that Reagan had packed the lower courts and had forgotten (if I ever knew it) that Souter was appointed by Bush I. As with the OJ essays, the more theoretical and academic ones were the least interesting. I'm not even sure what Patricia Williams was trying to do with her "witch" fantasy. The most informative essay was the one written by Margaret Burnham because she focused on the politics of the court as much as she did on the Hill-Thomas mess. Unfortunately, no essay questioned the whole concept of sexual harassment, which one writer pointed out wasn't a thing until the 1980's. Clearly, Hill was a black female Mike Pence, conservative, religious, and uptight. It's not clear if the despicable Thomas was just an immature clown or a mean bully using his filthy mouth to unnerve an uptight woman, but Hill was definitely a weak prude. She should have told filthier jokes or asked him if he learned to talk like that from his mother, his grandmother, or the beloved nuns who taught him so well. This book makes it even clearer to me that sexual harassment should go into the garbage bins of history with black people going in back doors and using separate bathrooms, women staying in the kitchen and not working, and gays being converted to straights and not being allowed to marry. It shouldn't be, nor should it ever have been a thing.

[Reese Williams-Howell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book shows how women are treated when they come forward in regards to being harass or sexually assaulted. that's why so few want to come forward because they have been portrayed as a liar especially the African female. African women have been abuse since slavery and now. African women need to support one another and the African men need to support them. A must-read for all African women young and old.

[Kelsea Kilbride · Rating 5 out of 5]

A ridiculously brilliant set of authors who dissect an incredibly complex moment in US history from different angles. I'm walking away thinking differently about race, gender, intra and interracial relationships, electoral politics, narrative building-- I genuinely learned something new every chapter. Would NOT recommend trying to read it straight through because it can be repetitive, but I'd highly recommend picking the chapters or authors that sound most interesting to you.

[Arielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

2017 Reading Challenge - A book recommended by a librarian (by a professor, actually)

This is an interesting compilation of essays reflecting on the confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas, specifically the hearings involving Anita Hill. While nearly twenty years old, considering today's #MeToo movement and discussions of intersectionality around this, it is especially timely.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very powerful and necessary. I read this when Thomas overturned Roe in 2022. It’s important to remember/study the past because he was accused of sexual misconduct, and misogyny and a play with his own language of what was happening to him allowed him to sit on the court. I skipped some essay because some reiterated others.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what you want to be reading when we lose RBG! I had to take a long break out of despair, but there's a lot of wisdom here.

[Salvatore · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best essay compilations I've read, that feel prescient of today's issues. Albeit there is some minor repetition in this arguments, the essays themselves impressively interrogate race and gender issues. The issues are generally as follows: Because Clarence Thomas is black, white senators had trouble confronting him, a more passive style of racism. Because Anita Hill is black and a woman, Americans didn't know how to classify her, how to trust her. Language during the confirmation sessions became electric and imbued with such power, whether used correctly or not - such as Thomas comparing himself to being lynched (which most of these contributors note that never in American history has anyone found a black man lynched for something a black woman said). Sexual harassment and racist ideologues are still apparent in American culture, perhaps embedded in it. And these essays attempt to tease them out and try to understand why - and how we can learn from this intense moment in history.

[Rabya]

old book; found it at used book store; looking forward to reading it later this month!

[scherzo♫ · Rating 5 out of 5]

15.10 Title relates to personal philosophy

[l · Rating 4 out of 5]

The essays by Toni Morrison, A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., Patricia J. Williams, Christine Stansell, Kimberle Crenshaw and Paula Giddings are especially worth reading.

[David Withun · Rating 4 out of 5]

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