Matthew A. Sears

I've seen lots of pain from women in response to yesterday's circus, exacerbated by the "men are under attack" chorus. This pain is entirely legitimate. But imagine what it must be like for Black Americans given that Jeff Sessions being the Attorney General is business as usual.

Think about the gaslighting women are experiencing: "But what about Rolling Stone!" "What about Duke Lacrosse?" "I believe that *something* happened to her, but we can't trust her memory!" "She's a partisan ruining a good man's life!"

Now consider that those with privilege always do this sort of gaslighting whenever this privilege is pointed out ("what about affirmative action?" "Indigenous people are to blame for their own problems and should get over it!" etc.).

Those who benefit from the system always protest the notion of systemic problems. NO ONE benefits more than private-school educated white Washington insiders. The merest *hint* that the world is beginning to question that privilege causes the right-wing tantrums we saw yesterday.

I hope the justified rage at the gaslighting and bullying Dr. Blasey Ford, who showed great courage, had to endure yesterday wakes more people up to the many other groups that deal with that kind of gaslighting and bullying from those who benefit from the system.

For those who argue that the Kavanaughs of the world deserve "due process," consider that the *whole point* is that they have *always* benefitted from the "due process" that they themselves create and perpetuate for their own benefit, while excluding others from that process.