Page 7 - My FlipBook

She had devoted her entire career to fi ghting sexual harassment
and abuse among young black women. She was afraid that all
her work would be buried under the avalanche of publicity that
seemed focused on actresses and other famous white women.
As Burke said in a 2018 interview: “I woke up to fi nd out that the
hashtag #metoo had gone viral and I didn’t see any of the work I
laid out over the previous decade attached to it. I thought for sure
I would be erased from a thing I worked so hard to build.” As
12
soon as Milano realized what had happened, she reached out to
Burke by tweeting an apology. The two women began working
together to promote the #MeToo movement.

A Heartbreaking Recollection

For years Tarana Burke has worked as an advocate for young women of color
who have been sexually harassed or assaulted. But when she thinks about her
rst encounter with a young girl who turned to her for help, the memory is ex-
tremely painful. It occurred in the late 1990s, when Burke was working at a
youth camp in Selma, Alabama. During a bonding session, several girls shared
intimate stories about their lives. As she had done many times before, Burke
listened to the girls and offered comfort as needed. The next day a thirteen-year-
old girl named Heaven, who had been in the session, asked to speak with Burke
privately.Burke writes:

For the next several minutes this child, Heaven, struggled to tell me
about her “stepdaddy” or rather her mother’s boyfriend who was doing
all sorts of monstrous things to her developing body. . . . I was horri ed
by her words, the emotions welling inside of me ran the gamut, and I
listened until I literally could not take it anymore. . . . Right in the middle
of her sharing her pain with me, I cut her off and immediately directed
her to another female counselor who could “help her better.” I will never
forget the look on her face. I will never forget the look because I think
about her all of the time. . . . I watched her put her mask back on and
go back into the world like she was all aloneand I couldn’t even bring
myself to whisper . . . me too.

Tarana Burke, “The Inception,” JustBe Inc., 2013. https://justbeinc.wixsite.com/justbeinc/the
-me-too-movement-cmml.

12