“President Trump will not diminish my truth.” – Jennifer Willoughby
When I was a law professor, one of my colleagues stopped by my office to chat and the conversation eventually turned to trade policy. He got very worked up and began to aggressively rant about how “those goddamned Japs” were supposedly taking advantage of us. I told him that his comments were offensive, but he didn’t care and, instead kept repeating the epithet. So I ended the discussion and invited him out of my office.
As the youngest and only non-tenured faculty member, I wasn’t sure how to handle this obnoxious display of racism by a senior, tenured professor. So I shared the encounter with a tenured faculty member whom I trusted. She promised to discreetly raise the issue with the dean.
A couple of weeks later, during a faculty meeting, the dean said “I don’t want to name any names, but it’s been brought to my attention that a faculty member has complaining that a colleague used the word [gesturing with air quotes] Jap.”
My heart skipped as I thought, “Oh, my God! I was heard! Yay!”
And then he continued:
“I want to remind everybody that we’re not the thought police. Everybody has a right to his opinion and going around whining and snitching on people behind their backs just because they said something that rubs us the wrong way undermines collegiality. I suggest that we grow up and stop trying to cause trouble.”
In other words, racism and racist language by a law professor weren’t the problem. The people who object to it are the problem. And the man who wielded enormous power over my position and future made sure that he put me on notice and on blast that, a white male faculty member had every right to spout racist views, but the women who didn’t like it had better shut up about it.
While being offended by a person’s language isn’t even in the same galaxy as being beaten by a spouse, I imagine that Jennifer Willoughby and Colbie Hodlerness, the ex-wives of disgraced former White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter, must have experienced feelings that were similar, albeit exponentially more acute than mine that day, when they heard Donald Trump blow off Porter’s reprehensible and criminal behavior:
“Oh, good! The President of the United States now knows that Rob is an abuser and he’ll finally be called out at last. Thank God!”
“Wait. What?”
Jennifer and Colbie refused to be cowed by the bully-in-chief, who used his position and pulpit to effusively praise her batterer and tacitly remind his victims and other similarly situated women that not only does he not believe them, but he sees their abuser as the victim and they as the problem who should be blamed, shamed and then told to shut up and go away.
They refused to crawl back into the shadows. Instead, they said, “Oh, HELL no!”, and then raised their voice even louder.
“I want to assure you my truth has not been diminished,” Jennifer Willoughby declared. “I own my story and now that I have been compelled to share it, I’m not willing to cover it up for anyone.
Keep speaking your truth, ladies. We hear you. You’re making a difference.
Thank you.