In 2017, the hashtag became a viral sensation. Tarana BurkeThe movement was founded in 2006, when it was first launched. We spoke to the founder. #MeTooAbout its history and the specific changes that need to be made to support victims and prevent sexual assault. This Saturday marks the five-year anniversary of the viral movement.
The transcript of the video is below.
Tarana BurkeTarana Burke is my name and I founded the #MeToo movement.
#MeToo was established in 2006 in support of survivors of sexual violence. It is especially targeted at black and brown girls who participated in the program. Since then, it has expanded to include support for grown people, women and men as well as other survivors. It also helps people understand how community action can be used to end sexual violence.
While I was still living and working in Alabama, we founded Just Be Inc. Our goal was to teach the young women we worked with and help them feel self-worth. This was different from self-esteem. Right? Our theory was, you must first build self-worth before you can have healthy self-esteem.
We encountered many girls who spoke out about their experiences with sexual violence. They shared their stories. Sometimes they didn’t know it was sexual violence. Right? We would hear things like: A 7th grade girl told me once that her boyfriend was 21. And I thought, “That’s not an intimate relationship.” It’s a crime.
Our Myspace page was up within days. Back then, viral was not a term. If there were, this would be very similar to viral. We received so many responses within a week. They were all like “Thanks for doing this,”” “This is amazing,” “How can I get involved?” “We need your help.” We realized that this was much bigger than we had thought.
People refer to me as the leader of this movement.
It’s helped me scale up and expand my work and the vision that I have for this work. It’s allowed me to have more visibility and talk about the topic, as well as increased resources to implement some of my ideas.
#MeToo focuses primarily on survivors supporting survivors. It’s about community healing, community action. We can’t determine what healing looks for each person, but we can set the stage to give people the resources they need to heal. That includes legal things, such as policies and laws that support survivors.
To give survivors of sexual assaults justice, it is necessary to test rape kits in the country. What policies do local schools have for vetting teachers in relation to vetting? Your sexual harassment policy can be organized, taken and examined by employees at work.
The #MeToo Congress bill eliminates the 90-day cooling off period that Capitol Hill employees must have before they can file sexual harassment claims. It will hopefully set a precedent for the rest of the country once it’s passed.
Most survivors won’t ask for their loved ones to be fired. They just want their stories to be told. They want to share their story loudly and feel some accountability.
Talking to survivors is essential. We are the ones that have to decide what justice looks like.
The other half of the equation is about community action. We strongly believe that it is possible to organize for the end of sexual violence. People do every day. There are groups and organizations that do this. I believe we should elevate the conversation to social justice.
We are working on a documentary and other materials. When this viral moment occurred, I thought, “If the phrase Me Too” becomes popular in this context, and that is also about sexual abuse, and we are not here to ground it and give context to it, then we’re going to get lost.” This work will be lost.
At first, I was definitely panicked. After that, I experienced another panic attack. I was like “God there are millions of women who have suffered from sexual violence and there is no place to store this.” It’s not possible to offer support or help them through the process of disclosure. What should you do after #MeToo is over?
It’s first and foremost humbling. It’s very humbling to have people invest in this idea, which was actually started to help our community. It’s encouraging that the world is moving towards a world where there are open conversations about sexual violence.
