Even in the midst of a global pandemic, it's important to still call out sexual violence.
To learn more, I talked to Tarana Burke, founder of the Me Too movement.
Back in November, when the world was still just a normal level of s—, I sat down with
Tarana Burke, founder of the Me Too movement, and learned that I'm her Scottie Pippen and
she's the Michael Jordan of telling the future. - Imagine if we woke up tomorrow and 12 million
people came forward and said they had some rare disease. Our whole world would stop.
Are you psychic?! What’s the next earth shattering event that is coming our way? And
could it please just be, like, a super secret album by Beyoncé? Or something nice?
- I feel like, imagine if we woke up tomorrow and we had a person in the White House who
really cared about its citizens and was deeply connected to moving us forward as a country
and healing. But the president can't even move himself
forward. So people are marching together and taking matters into their own hands. Tarana
is here to remind us that women can't be left out of the renewed fight for racial equality.
- I’ve gotten this pushback that says, you know, “you’re supposed to be Me Too. Why
are you over here talking about Black Lives Matter?” And, you know, outside of my Black
life mattering, right? There is a very direct connection between police brutality and sexual
violence. It’s not just when somebody is murdered; it is when a teenage girl is held
in handcuffs in a van like the one was in here in New York, and raped by two police
officers, right? People have to pay attention to sexual violence and the crisis of sexual
violence because it really permeates every part of our culture, every part of our lives.
So times may change but the way that we hate women remains constant.
- Consistent. After the use of excessive force, sexual violence
is the second most reported type of police misconduct. And Black women and Black LGBTQ
people are disproportionately targeted. For them, this fight is personal. When people
say to you this isn’t the right time to talk about sexual violence, like, how do you
even how do even respond to them? You know, feel free to use expletives. But are you just—?
Can you not—? This is cable, you can say whatever you want.
- You know me so well. It does warrant a f— you. It’s angering, it’s triggering, it’s
dismissive, and there’s never a time where we shouldn’t. Because we don’t talk about
sexual violence, a young 19-year-old girl, Toyin Salau in Florida is dead. She was sexually
assaulted. The last thing she put on Twitter was about her sexual assault. She went to
the police and she still ended up dead. So we have to talk about her. We can walk
and chew gum at the same time. - I’m not sure that we can do those things
at the same time. You have a lot of faith in America. If we can combine a KFC and a
Taco Bell, we can combine the conversation on police misconduct and sexual violence.
If not for Oluwatoyin Salau, Breonna Taylor, and so many others… Ugh, why does ignoring
women never go out of style? - Think about the current movement, right?
Three Black women started Black Lives Matter. And there’s still confusion from people
around who started it because men emerged. So many people talk about Dr. Martin Luther
King, who was an amazing leader, but who was a leader who was absolutely informed by some
of the bravest, most brilliant, most badass women in the world. We don’t have a civil
rights movement if we don’t have Fannie Lou Hamer, right? If we don’t have Ella
Baker. But we don’t hear their names. Why does the role of gender historically get
downplayed when it comes to civil rights movements? - Oh, patriarchy!
Oh! - Yeah.
Turns out that answer works for the rest of my questions, so... bye! America might finally
be at the precipice of dealing with systemic racism for real. But it won't work if we don't
also address sexual violence. So I decided to Hallmark that s— so people stop saying
it's not the time to talk about it. How do we keep sexual violence in people’s minds
amid a pandemic and a big movement? - If we could pick a time to make sure people
change focus for just a minute on these things, then maybe we could get people to adopt it.
Oh my god, every Tuesday could be Me-Toosday. - Me-Toosday! I’m not mad at that.
So what comes next? Other than waiting for the TikTok teens to save us. What would police
reform that takes survivors of sexual violence into account even look like? You know, feel
free to use your wildest imagination. You’ll need your imagination.
- I can tell you that the call to defund police right now is integral in the shift that’s
necessary to support survivors. If we could move away from a law and order framework and
move towards a harm and harm reduction framework, then you will save lives. My wildest dream
is that we not just reform what we have, but that we tear down what we have and we create
something new. And if her last interview was any indication,
it seems like Tarana’s wildest dreams have a pretty good chance of coming true.