What does justice look like for a survivor? It’ll mean different things to different communities.
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Tarana Burke
Tarana Burke is an American civil rights activist. She is known for being the first to use the phrase "Me Too", in 2006, to raise awareness of the pervasiveness of sexual abuse and assault in society. The phrase has since developed into a broader movement. Time named Burke, among a group of other prominent female activists dubbed "the silence breakers", as the Time Person of the Year for 2017. She is currently Senior Director at Girls for Gender Equity. 2Biography Burke was born and raised in Queens, New York. As a teenager, she became involved in working to improve the lives of young girls living in marginalized communities. In 2008, she moved to Philadelphia to further her work as an activist. She worked at Art Sanctuary Philadelphia as well as at other non-profits. She was a consultant for the Hollywood movie Selma, based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches led by James Bevel, Hosea Williams, Martin Luther King, J
What about the person whose family didn’t know until they saw it on social media? What if for a survivor social media is your self-care and you’re bombarded with all these posts? It’s really complicated.
There are a series of emotions that most survivors go through after disclosing. It starts with feeling great, like the weight on your shoulders has been lifted, and then you’re alone with your thoughts, like, “Why did I do that?” And then what about the person who gets backlash?
There’s sexual harassment over here and you shouldn’t conflate it with rape. Which is true; those are two very different things. But they’re on the same spectrum. Sexual harassment is like the gateway drug. It’s the entry point.
Me Too, in a lot of ways, is about agency. It’s not about giving up your agency, it’s about claiming it.
I don’t think that every single case of sexual harassment has to result in someone being fired; the consequences should vary. But we need a shift in culture so that every single instance of sexual harassment is investigated and dealt with.