Activist and founder of the #MeToo movement Tarana Burke gave the Dream Week keynote address at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law on January 27. Students, faculty and staff packed Thorne Auditorium to hear Burke in conversation with moderator Shannon Bartlett, associate dean of inclusion and engagement. Dean Kimberly Yuracko opened the event by highlighting the importance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy and his prevailing inspiration for activists who continue his work today.
The media often points to October 5, 2017—the day the New York Times published a story
detailing the decades of alleged sexual harassment and assault by film producer
Harvey Weinstein—as the start of the #MeToo movement. But Burke officially launched
the movement when she introduced a Me Too page on Myspace more than a decade
earlier, in 2006. “It was declarative,” Burke said of the page that she hoped
would provide support, healing and empowerment for survivors.
When the Weinstein news broke, actresses including Rose
McGowan and Ashley Judd came forward with their own accounts of sexual assault.
Although the media focused on these high-profile, white, and wealthy survivors,
Burke said her work originally began as a way to shine a light on women from
underrepresented groups. Still,
she said she objects to claims that white women hijacked the #MeToo movement. They
are survivors, too, she said. Burke did call out and criticize the media for
not highlighting women from marginalized groups, and said the blame is on them,
not the survivors.
During the
conversation, Burke recalled a moment that defines her approach to activism
work today. She was in the room when Dr. Christine Blasey Ford told her story
during Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing in
September 2018. Like many, Burke was consumed by Dr. Ford’s testimony of her
alleged assault, and during a break in the hearing, she went to the restroom
where another woman started up a conversation about Dr. Ford’s retelling. “I
thought we were bonding,” quipped Burke to the room. But then the woman said
she wished Dr. Ford gave more details during her retelling of the incident.
“How could she not remember?” the woman said. Burke quickly—and
matter-of-factly—told the woman that after her own experience with sexual
assault as a child, “I spent 41 years of my life trying to forget.” It was in
that moment that Burke said she realized she needed to be more than a
figurehead of the movement against gender-based violence. “We have to shift
consciousness in America,” she said. “We don’t know what survivors look like.”
Burke said
she models her own activism on the work of Dr. King. “There was diversity at
the table,” she said, in reference to the men and women who surrounded and
supported Dr. King in his efforts. “I’m used to being at the table, not the
helm.” Although she still struggles with being in the spotlight, she’s
dedicated to doing whatever it takes to encourage progress. “We need to change
hearts and minds. We need to change culture,” she said. “Seeing change happen
is going to compel people, not the headlines.”
During the Q&A,
individuals shared their own stories as survivors, and many asked how they
could get involved in the movement. “I know it’s corny to say, but I find hope
in people,” said Burke. “You are not the sum total of the things that happened
to you.”
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