New York, Jan 21 (EFE).- The founder of the “Me Too” movement against sexual harassment, Tarana Burke, reflected today on a 2018 in which the “hashtag” that popularized it “has spread like wildfire”, but pointed out that their mission often does not coincide with what the media say because “we are not an anti-men movement, not even for women”.
“What the media has published in the last year about the movement is incorrect: it is not an anti-men movement, it is not a blame and shame movement, it is not a Hollywood movement, it is not even a women’s movement: it is a movement of survivors”, specified Burke, who has said that he has had to face “retaliation” for his position.
On the national day of the United States dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr., the black activist gave the main speech of a musical and political event held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, which for 33 years has organized the most massive commemoration in the city of New York to the leader of the civil rights of the African-American population.
Burke reviewed her own nearly three-decade career as a social worker and civil rights activist and highlighted the importance of women in the movement spearheaded by Luther King, whose portrait was projected behind her on the BAM Opera building, the musical institution oldest in operation in the country.
The director of the Girls for Gender Equity organization, who considered herself privileged to have learned from people who “shaped” history, recalled that for a while “people could not imagine that things were different” but the movements are growing and they make an impact far from the “instant gratification” of today.
Regarding the movement that began in 2006, “Me Too”, she assured that she does not care that it has gone “viral” relatively recently because she “would have continued the same” and opined that “the platforms arrive when the moment arrives”, although, Due to his popularization on social networks and his presence in the media, he has received “retaliation”.
In this sense, he said that the negative reactions to a movement that above all else wants to “end sexual violence” and support victims in their recovery “arrive in waves” driven by the media, as has happened this month. after the broadcast of the controversial documentary about the musician R. Kelly.
“They are black men who believe that our work to expose the depravity of this individual man, and that of those who shed light on the pain of sexual violence against black women and girls, is an attack on them,” explained the social worker, who concluded derisively: “If you see yourself in R.Kelly, honey, you’ve got a problem.”
The comment drew cheers, on top of what he did, however, that the matter “hurts to his heart” because he loves black men and “would never do anything on purpose to hurt anyone.”
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