Conversation with Tarana Burke
A few weeks ago a peculiar hashtag passed my screen. #MeToo. It sent more of an alarm to my brain than a mere casualty posting. The tag had been used by someone I had recently hosted on my weekly radio program. Someone I respected. Someone I think very highly of. As I looked into the meaning of the tag - alarmed I became.
The #MeToo hashtag that Alyssa Milano, former child star of Who's the Boss, starring Tony Danza, tweeted the tag and it went viral. Drawing international attention it got people asking who, what and why. I sent a message to this person in my network to inquire - to see if it indeed had effected them too, personally. The response I got was, Ian, its more more common that you would even believe. So, I reached out to both the inceptor of the tag and Alyssa.
Alyssa's publicist responded. She was busy and had no time. Tarana had the time and was willing to share it with me. So, with a level of gratification, I hosted the woman who incepted the #MeToo movement on my weekly radio program, Discussion with Ian Trottier.
Speaking with Tarana was a humbling experience. For more than a decade she has been working to empower young women and girls of color. Her Just Be, Inc project aims at doing just that and she's been using the #MeToo tag for many many years ... not just a few weeks. It was her own very deeply emotional and profound experience, not only at the age of 6 but again at 9 and yet again in her 20's that sparked her own need and desire to make a change. A change to not only empower like youth - but, Id imagine, to empower herself.
I quickly felt the humility from which she spoke. I felt a sense of the depth of pain from whence she came. As she spoke, the space between words seemed long and incredibly silent - even though being a millasecond. Sexual abuse and assault destroys lives. It's a dark and very sinister act and those on its receiving end scared for life.
The modern chapter of Tarana's story starts here. While working as a counselor to young women, now more than a decade ago, a girl sought out Tarana in confidence. As the young girl began sharing with Tarana the experience which was crippling her and her home life: a story of domestic abuse and assault, Tarana discovered it difficult to continue listening.
"...I could not find the strength to say out loud the words that were ringing in my head over and over again as she tried to tell me what she had endured... I watched her walk away from me as she tried to recapture her secrets and tuck them back into their hiding place. I watched her put her mask back on and go back into the world like she was all alone and I couldn't even bring myself to whisper... me too." - Tarana Burke
So, close now to a decade ago, she bargan jawing the #MeToo hashtag. Recently it CAUGHT FIRE. Social media, proves a conduit to deliver message to the masses. The tag apparently resonated with me from a pure appreciation for individual freedom and liberty and a desire to defend any violation of that, especially someone's body. It's not a matter of if I could directly identify with the pain - it was whether I could indirectly identify with pain. And indeed I could. As I read that above quote for the first time a tear swelled in my eye.
As discussed with Tarana, the #MeToo movement, for her, has grown much beyond that of age and race. This is someone that is stretching the Just Be, Inc well beyond and on a very international scale now. It is alarmar that both men and women, both straight gay, lesbian, queer - are effected by this. #MeToo is effecting those of all ages and all races and Tarana and Just Be, Inc mean business. As you will hear in our concersafion: iantrottier.com/RADIO, she has marching legislation up Capital Hill. She wants change and severe penalties to those who commit these very damaging acts of assault. And, I'm fully behind her and her efforts. Much stiffer penalties are required for those committing sexual assault and a much broader understanding and awerenss for this topic and how it's effecting the lives of those, not only in our States and communities but, many times right in our own families - is needed.
Please support this movement and share this story. Thank you - bit.ly/TaranaBurke
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