Charlie Evans
Gordon
AP Gov
3-1-16
Sex & Justice
Prompt 1: “High-tech lynching” is a modern day lynching. It isn’t physical, but it hurts one's reputation. It’s the idea that one intentionally attends to taint how a person of color is viewed in society. Although this type of lynching is not physical, it can still cause massive amounts of pain. In the case of Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill, I do not believe this is an example of “high-tech lynching”. I do not believe an successful, educated person would lie about sexual assault. The things that Anita Hill claimed were said to her by Thomas are vulgar, which makes me highly doubt that Hill made these things up. In the hearing, Thomas was very defensive and denied everything. He used his great speaking skills to avoid all of the accusations that were pointed in his direction. It seemed as the committee was fair in the hearing, because they allowed Hill to speak of all of Thomas’ comments that were sexual. The committee questioned Thomas directly about each of these claims, and it did not seem like they were favoring either side of the case. But in the end, Thomas was not officially accused of sexual assault, and was elected to become a part of the Supreme Court.
Prompt 2: In the 1950s, the Red Scare was just beginning to impact the United States. Many were scared that communism would take over the world, and it had to be stopped. One of those people was Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy was a U.S Senator from Wisconsin, who was famously very against communism. He made claims that there were over 200 members of the U.S government who were spies from the Soviet Union, and supported communism. Clarence connects to those defamed in the McCarthy hearings, because they were both blamed for committing criminal acts. But, Thomas and those defamed by McCarthy were treated much differently. McCarthy would verbally attack testimonies that were against his beliefs. Thomas was just continually questioned, and never verbally attacked. Also, Thomas was blamed by Hill for sexually assaulting her. McCarthy just blamed others for being communist with no clear evidence. Both Thomas, and McCarthy were apart of large cases in United States history, but they had many large differences.
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