Sex and Justice -- Jordi Amaral

Jordi Amaral

AP Gov. and Politics

Gordon

3/3/16

Clarence Thomas used the term "high-tech lynching" in order to portray himself as a victim of society as opposed to the perpetrator of a heinous crime.  By saying the trial was a “high-tech lynching,” Thomas is comparing the racist, public murders of black men that were often due to accusations of sexual misconduct, to the very public and televised tarnishing of his reputation through the trial. Anita Hill gave the senators a very descriptive and clear explanation of the actions of Thomas, however these were received by Thomas, and many in the committee to be false and used in order to prevent Thomas from being on the Supreme Court. Thus, they questioned her in an extremely inappropriate manner that in most normal trials would lead to a contempt of court violation. When Thomas was questioned, some of the Senators would refer back to Hill’s testimony in a derogatory way, attempting to lead Thomas to certain answers that would make Hill look bad. I wholeheartedly believe that if the lines of questioning like that were to have been quelled, then we would not have Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court today.

During the 1950s, the Red Scare was sweeping the nation as the Soviet Union and communism started to gain a power that rivaled that of the USA and democracy. The fear of communism led to actions reminiscent of the Salem Witch Trial, much like the Communist hearings held by Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1950. In my personal opinion the cases do not appear connected or are all that similar. However, two facets to either case need to be addressed when comparing them. For one, the key difference is in the evidence used in the respective allegations. In 1950, people were put on the stand simply to point other people out and apply blame to others. In 1991, however, Anita Hill had a clear and precise list of evidence against Clarence Thomas. The real similarity lying between the two cases comes when one looks at the end product of the cases, Both cases led to the ruining of reputations and led the nation to have bad feelings about what went down.