Tarana Burke, Founder of ‘me too,’ joins the Luann Dummer Center for Women as the 2020 Women’s History Month Speaker. Burke said she has spoken at almost 200 colleges and universities about the movement and the changes that still need to be made. (Mia Laube/TommieMedia)
After two and a half years, me too Movement creator Tarana Burke says people have forgotten what the movement is about.
Burke spoke to students, staff and community members Tuesday night in O’Shaughnessy Educational Center auditorium about the movement she started 14 years ago for survivors to share stories of sexual assault and abuse, popularized through the #metoo hashtag in October to 2017. The event was sponsored by the Luann Dummer Center for Women as its annual Women’s History Month speaker.
After St. Thomas a cappella groups Cadenza and Summit Singers sang Fletcher’s “I Believe You,” Burke asked the crowd: “When it comes to me too, or at least the popular discourse around me too, who actually gets heard?”
Burke said her work was never about celebrities, court cases or entertainment news.
“It was about protecting, amplifying and responding to the collective voices that said, ‘me too,’”
Burke said.
Burke targeted college campuses when discussing several problems with me too’s evolution.
She told colleges and universities to “put your money where your mouth is,” saying one sexual violence prevention coordinator isn’t enough for 6,000 undergraduate students; neither is one online course before freshman year.
LDCW worker Bizzy Stephenson agrees with Burke about administration allocating resources to support the movement and said administration and campus staff should ask how they can support Sexual Misconduct Prevention Director Emily Erickson’s work at St. Thomas.
“Hopefully administration will listen,” Stephenson said.
Burke said changing the discourse around sexual violence will take “masses of people,” but she wants new leaders to take charge.
“I’m one person with one vision … we need multiple visions,” Burke said.
Cadenza will share its vision in April when it releases a music video version of “I Believe You.”
Soloist Thuy-Vy Tran calls others to do the simplest thing possible: use their voices to create dialogue.
“Have conversations,” Tran said. “Talk to other people. Challenge other people you know to have these conversations because it’s not easy.”
Mia Laube can be reached at mia.laube@stthomas.edu.