Stop blaming white women

 The New York Times recently had a piece called "The March of the Karens," which was about "Karen" as "an epithet for a type of interfering, hectoring white woman."  To accompany it, "Carmen Winant created six collages exclusively for T, all of which are titled 'White Women Look Away' (2021). The works are a continuation of her 2016 series of the same name, made in response to that year’s presidential election and to the 'lack of support Prof. Anita Hill received from white women' during her testimony in 1991."  That made me wonder what the racial and gender differences were on that controversy.  I looked at a USA Today poll from Oct 13, 1991, as the Senate hearings were concluding.  It asked "Clarence Thomas has been charged with sexual harassment by Anita Hill, and he has denied the charges.  Who do you believe is telling the truth?"  The results broken down by race (black and white only).

                         Thomas       Hill      Both    Neither     DK

White                  47%         25%         6%     4%          18%

 Black                 47%          20%         8%     7%          18%

and gender:

Men                 49%             22%          5%      5%        19%

Women            45%             26%          6%       4%       19%

Little or no difference either way (the associations were not statistically significant).   But maybe there's an interaction--e.g. maybe support for Anita Hill was highest among black women and lowest among white women?

White M          51%             22%        5%          4%       18%

White F             44%            27%        6%          4%      18%

Black M            45%            21%        7%          8%      18%

Black F             49%            20%         8%          6%      19%

In fact, support for Hill was highest among white women, although once again the differences were not statistically significant.  

I also looked at a survey from 1994, which asked people what they thought about it then.  There was more support for Hill overall (about 45% believed her and 45% Thomas) and there was some gender gap, with women more likely to believe Hill.  But once again, there was no evidence of a difference by race or an interaction between race and gender.  

Another thing I noticed was that partisan differences were not all that strong.  In 1991, 18% of Republicans and 31% of Democrats thought that Hill was telling the truth.  In contrast, 8% of Republicans and 76% of Democrats said that they thought that Christine Blasey Ford was telling the truth in the Brett Kavanaugh hearings.  

[Data from the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research]