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It was perhaps the most wretchedly aspersive race and gender scandal of recent times: 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 by:
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

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from the Introduction: Friday on the Potomac Toni Morrison     Clusters of black people pray in front of the White House for the Lord not to abandon them, to intervene and crush the forces that would prevent a black nominee to the Supreme Court from assuming the seat felt by them to be reserved for a member of the race. Other groups of blacks stare at the television set, revolted by the president's nomination of the one candidate they believe to be obviously unfit to adjudicate legal and policy matters concerning them. Everyone interested in the outcome of this nomination, regardless of race, class, gender, religion, or profession, turns to as many forms of media as are available. They read the Washington Post for verification of their dread of their hope, read the New York Times as though it were Pravda, searching between the lines of the official story for one that most nearly approximates what might really be happening. They read local papers to see if the reaction among their neighbors is similar to their own, or they try to figure out on what information their own response should be based. They have listened to newscasters and anchor people for the bits and bites that pointed to, or deflected attention from, the machinery of campaigns to reject or accept the nominee. They have watched television screens that seem to watch back, that dismiss viewers of call upon them for flavor, reinforcement, or routine dissent. Polls assure and shock, gratify and discredit those who took them into serious account.   But most of all, people talked to one another. There are passionate, sometimes acrimonious discussions between mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, husbands and wives, siblings, friends, acquaintances, colleagues with who, now, there is reason to embrace or to expel from their close circle. Sophisticated legal debates merge with locker-room guffaws; poised exchanges about the ethics and moral responsibilities of governance are debased by cold indifference to individual claims and private vulnerabilities. Organizations and individuals call senators and urge friends to do the same--providing opinions and information, threatening, cajoling, explaining positions, or simply saying, Confirm! Reject! Vote yes. Vote no.   These were some of the scenes stirred up by the debates leading to the confirmation of Clarence Thomas, the revelations and evasions within the testimony, and by the irrevocable mark placed on those hearings by Anita Hill's accusations against the nominee. The points of the vector were all the plateaus of power and powerlessness: white men, black men, black women, white women, interracial couples; those with a traditionally conservative agenda, and those representing neoconservative conversions; citizens with radical and progressive programs; the full specter of the "pro" antagonists ("choice" and "life"); there were the publicly elected, the self-elected, the racial supremacists, the racial egalitarians, and nationalists of every stripe.   The intensity as well as the volume of these responses to the hearings were caused by more than the volatile content of the proceedings. The emptiness, the unforthcoming truths that lay at the center of the state's performance contributed much to the frenzy as people grappled for meaning, for substance unavailable through ordinary channels. Michael Rustin has described race as "both an empty category and one of the most destructive and powerful forms of social categorization." This paradox of a powerfully destructive emptiness can be used to illustrate the source of the confusion, the murk, the sense of helpless rage that accompanied the confirmation process.   It became clear, finally, what took place: a black male nominee to the Supreme Court was confirmed amid a controversy that raised and buried issues of profound social significance.   What is less clear is what happened, how it happened, why it happened; what implications may be drawn, what consequences may follow. For what was at stake during these hearings was history. In addition to what was taking place, something was happening. And as is almost always the case, the site of the exorcism of critical national issues was situated in the miasma of black life and inscribed on the bodies of black people.   [ . . . ] Excerpted from Race-Ing Justice, En-Gendering Power: Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas and the Construction of Social Reality by Toni Morrison All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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Publishers Weekly Review

As Morrison (Jazz) writes in her pointed opening essay, the Thomas controversy last year both raised and buried issues of profound national significance. This collection of 19 essays, mostly by academics, powerfully advances the debate, though Thomas's defenders will find little solace. Most telling is federal judge A. Leon Higgonbotham's open letter to Thomas, cordially but relentlessly laying out the legal history of the civil rights movement and showing how Thomas's own public and private life has benefited. Manning Marable, describing the crisis in the response by black organizations, skillfully skewers the neoaccommodationist support of Thomas among black liberals. Gayle Pemberton writes that Hill exemplifies James Baldwin's observation that white Americans don't know how to deal with a black who falls outside of their expectations. Christine Stansell notes Catharine MacKinnon's initial embrace of Thomas for his life experience while ignoring his ideas as an example of how even militant feminists can be snookered when the issue is racial identity. Some essays cover the same ground, and a few are jargon-heavy, but the collection remains valuable. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

Published on the first anniversary of the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings, this remarkable collection includes an exquisitely written introduction by Toni Morrison, in which she frames the discourse contained in the 18 essays that follow. The Thomas hearings forced onto center stage the interrelated issues of race, gender, and multiculturalism. The essays, contributed by African Americans a federal judge, novelists, and scholars of history, literature, law, philosophy, women's studies and African American studies address these issues. The quality of the essays is amazingly consistent; they are all well written and original. Especially impressive are Leon Higginbotham's evaluation of Thomas's qualifications and capabilities; Michael Thelwell's indictment of Yale's decision to concentrate on recruitment and integration of only the brightest and most promising black students in lieu of establishing a course of study in African American culture and history; Cornel West's review of the failure of black leadership and racialist reasoning; and Paula Giddings's historical insights into African American sexism. This is an important volume on a timely subject. Highly recommended for all libraries and all readers. F. J. Hay; Harvard University

Booklist Review

The circumstances surrounding the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, with Anita Hill's subsequent testimony concerning sexual harassment, continue to stir up painful sentiments. The televised spectacle and its aftermath are reflected upon in Toni Morrison's clearly articulated preface and in 18 thought-provoking essays by learned contributors. Although there are redundancies (for instance, mention is made a number of times of Thomas' insensitive and inaccurate 1980 speech mentioning his sister's welfare dependency), the essays serve to illuminate the riveting event itself while constructing a framework in which to view Thomas' life, issues of gender, and the ramifications of the hearings. The fact, as Morrison states, that "it is now possible to speak about these matters [of race and gender] without the barriers" makes this an essential addition for collections. ~--Alice Joyce

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Toni Morrison was born in Lorain, Ohio on February 18, 1931. She received a B.A. in English from Howard University in 1953 and a master's degree in English from Cornell University in 1955 with her thesis on the theme of suicide in modern literature. She taught at several universities including Texas Southern University, Howard University, and Princeton University.

Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. Her other works include Sula, Tar Baby, Jazz, Paradise, Love, A Mercy, Home, and God Help the Child. She has won several awards including the National Book Critics Circle Award for Song of Solomon in 1977, the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved in 1988, the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012, the Edward MacDowell Medal for her outstanding contribution to American culture in 2016, and the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction in 2016. She also co-wrote children's books with her son, Slade Morrison, including The Big Box, The Book of Mean People, and Peeny Butter Fudge.

Toni Morrison passed away on August 5, 2019 at the age of 88, after a short illness.

(Bowker Author Biography)