Tarana Burke and protesters at the Survivor's March |
As early as a teenager, Burke had already started giving back to her community as an activist and voice for younger girls in her community. The experience that Burke claimed prompted her movement was while she was a counselor at a girls’ youth camp. One of the girls in attendance, Heaven, was regarded as a “troubled” child. When she went to speak with Burke privately and divulged information about the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother’s boyfriend, she cut off the young girl to redirect her to another counselor. Burke was also a survivor of sexual abuse, and later admitted she was not ready to confront someone else’s trauma before she had fully conquered her own. Heaven didn’t return to camp after, and Tarana Burke was left questioning why she couldn’t have just told the young girl, “me too”.
Milano's tweet that recently reignited the movement |
Along with being the founder of the Me Too movement, Burke was also the founder of Just Be Inc. in 2006, an organization devoted to helping the wellbeing and wholeness of young women of color by reaffirming their self worth in adversity of mass media and patriarchal society. She is also a senior director and speaker for Girls for Gender Equity, a Brooklyn based foundation with the goal of removing the barriers and obstacles that women face in order to promote equality and empowerment for women everywhere.
Here's a link to our presentation!
After the past year or so of the Me Too movement, the media coverage of the issue has been mainly focused on Hollywood, and I personally have not heard Tarana Burke name in the conversation. I am looking forward to understanding the origins of this movement that has sparked national discussion and attention to this vital issue. I already find it fascinating how the movement was used to lift up members of her community.
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