Anita Hill is an iconic figure in the history of women and sexual harassment. The documentary, Anita, is an expose on her journey of coming out with her story of the abuse she received from Clarence Thomas, a Supreme Court nominee. She presented her story to an all-white, all-male Senate Judiciary Committee who accused Hill of being a liar and solely seeking media attention. The documentary sheds light on her life and impact on society as a black woman facing all-white opposition, and provokes audiences to think about why she faced extreme backlash for her actions.
After reading about and watching Crenshaw explain intersectionality, the experience of Hill made so much more sense. Being a woman was only one layer of Hill’s identity that put her in a lesser position of power. Furthermore, being a woman who also happened to be a person of color placed her in that much lower of a position. In my opinion, the most interesting part of the documentary was the depiction of the struggle she faced trying to gain the support of both women and black men. Women thought that if she teamed up with black men, she was embracing a patriarchy, while black men thought that if she teamed up with women, she was ignoring her black identity and heritage. Audiences see many different layers of Hill’s identity, such as her socioeconomic class and others, that all intersect to place her in a niche that clearly heavily impacted how the court officials viewed her case and statements.
