Sexual Harassment Claims Against Cain: Much Ado About Nothing (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | News that GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain might have been involved in a sexual harassment scandal in the 1990s is nothing more than a deliberate attempt by opponents to unfairly disgrace the candidate who frankly, due to his commentary on Muslims, has disgraced himself enough to disqualify himself.

I'm not saying there wasn't a case. There likely was. There was likely even a payout, but that doesn't mean that in the 1990s Cain stepped outside of the norm of convention and sexually harassed anyone.

I lived through the sexual harassment movement in the 1990s, shortly after the era of braless women and dolfin running shorts. Back then, sexual harassment was a catch phrase, used to define everything that had anything to do with highlighting the differences that existed between men and women, especially in the workplace. It was a valuable and empowering time for women, but men got a raw deal.

In the early 1990s I was fired from my job as a waiter on grounds of sexual harassment. My crime? A group of women in their mid-30s, who were notorious for tipping poorly, left me a generous tip. When the head waitress asked me how I managed it, I told her it was because I'm a guy. Insensitive? Maybe, but hardly the stuff of sexual harassment.

When culture shifts happen, such as what empowered women more fully in the workplace in the 1990s, a lot of witches seem to be burned needlessly at stakes. But it is unfair to hold people responsible, even presidential candidates, for their behavior before a standard was agreed upon, and during a time when the definition of the standard was in such limbo that unfounded accusations killed careers.

I dislike Cain immensely. I find him bigoted, shortsighted and wholly unworthy of the office of president. But if we are to hold him accountable for sexual harassment in the 1990s, then we must also hold everyone accountable who chose the wrong side of the debate during the civil rights era, and in 20 years, those who now rail against same-sex marriage. Society moves forward in baby steps. There are a lot of reasons to dislike the former Godfather's Pizza CEO. Sexual harassment is a side show.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111031/us_ac/10335199_sexual_harassment_claims_against_cain_much_ado_about_nothing

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