Tuesday, October 02, 2007

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Thelma and Louise, an update

Anita Hill says this in an Op-Ed piece in today’s New York Times:
Regrettably, since 1991, I have repeatedly seen this kind of character attack on women and men who complain of harassment and discrimination in the workplace. In efforts to assail their accusers’ credibility, detractors routinely diminish people’s professional contributions. Often the accused is a supervisor, in a position to describe the complaining employee’s work as “mediocre” or the employee as incompetent. Those accused of inappropriate behavior also often portray the individuals who complain as bizarre caricatures of themselves — oversensitive, even fanatical, and often immoral — even though they enjoy good and productive working relationships with their colleagues.

Finally, when attacks on the accusers’ credibility fail, those accused of workplace improprieties downgrade the level of harm that may have occurred. When sensing that others will believe their accusers’ versions of events, individuals confronted with their own bad behavior try to reduce legitimate concerns to the level of mere words or “slights” that should be dismissed without discussion.

Fortunately, we have made progress since 1991. Today, when employees complain of abuse in the workplace, investigators and judges are more likely to examine all the evidence and less likely to simply accept as true the word of those in power. But that could change. Our legal system will suffer if a sitting justice’s vitriolic pursuit of personal vindication discourages others from standing up for their rights.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Enuf said.

"I'm very innocent." Some people just don't get it.

"He's not a four-time champion coach and general manager. He'll probably go at some point."

Well, that says it all. If he had been a champion coach/general manager, his job would be safe. How very Wall Street.

Ms. Brown did not gloat and she knows it'll be a loooonnnng time before she see anything from the Knicks - she won't see an apology.

The Knicks besmirched her reputation and they still don't care that a jury - a mixed jury of men and women of various ethnicities - found them guilty. Specifically the owner and the Knicks and less Isiah Thomas.

Just sayin'

Ok, this didn't have that much to do with the Opinion in the NYT, but........

Barry Leiba said...

Well, it did have to do with another man named "Thomas" who's been accused of sexual harassment, so that's close enough to get it posted.

(And every time I see "Isiah", I think it's misspelled. Of course, one can spell one's name any way one wants to, but still....)