Me Too founder seeks to see causes of sexual violence addressed

March 28, 2019 | G. Michael Dobbs
news@thereminder.com

SPRINGFIELD – Tarana Burke, the founder of the Me Too movement calling attention to the victims of sexual abuse, said much needs to be done to address the causes behind abusive behaviors.

Burke was in Springfield to deliver an address at the 150th anniversary celebration of the YWCA of Western Massachusetts. Founded in 1868 by 15 women, the organization is the 10th largest and third oldest in the nation.

She is a survivor of sexual assault herself. Burke is the senior director of the Girls for gender Equity organization based in Brooklyn, NY. She started using the phrase “Me Too” in 2006 and when it was used as a hash tag in 2017, the message reached people internationally.

In an exclusive interview with Reminder Publishing, Burke said her message on March 26 in the city was “what Me Too actually is and how the movement exists beyond the hash tag and what the charge is for us moving forward because I think people have been excited about the movement but need clarity about the movement.”

She continued, saying through the movement survivors of sexual violence “have found community and a space to come forward. That’s why we’re in this moment.”

That sense of community has given people the strength to speak about their own situation, she explained.

“All of this misconception and all that is around about targeting people and who’s next are distractions from the fact we still have millions of people who looking for resources, millions of organizations and groups who are under-resourced – brass tack things, we have to get to that.”

Burke believes programs addressing sexual violence should have funding from local, state or federal governments.

“If your highest priority is protecting your citizens and you have this many millions of citizens, just thinking about the United States – this is a global issue – these many millions of citizens who stand up in union and say ‘Our lives are affected by this thing,’ it should be a response from our government that ‘we have to take a look at this closely to see what’s working, see what’s not working and put resources where we can.’”

She added, “It should be a collective community response to that [sexual violence] and what’s the biggest part of community is our government.”

Burke believes the media focus has been on the perpetrators of sexual violence such as Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby rather than on other issues.

“I think there has been very little focus on what are the systems that are in place, what kind of culture do we have that exists that allows for this kind of violence to happen, what kind of systems do we have the sustains this level of violence – that you could have a person who has so much power like Weinstein or even a Cosby, who perpetuate these kind of crimes for 20 and 30 and 40 years without seeing any kind of accountability,” she said.

Burke continued that it’s not just the behavior of an individual but the system around that person that allows sexual violence to happen and protects these people.

“I would love to se the media dig into root causes. How do you have 12 million people use a hash tag in one day, 24 hours and still focus on individual people? Right? How do you have a hash tag go viral in the way Me Too did and not talk about the breadth of sexual violence?” she asked.

Burke said sexual violence crosses over every race, every religion.

“What has happened is that people have cherry-picked what is easy, what is digestible, what is comfortable. We need people not to just be uncomfortable. We need them to be up-ended,” she added.

Burke is hoping additional reporting by the press would continue addressing more than celebrity cases.

The YWCA of Western Massachusetts provides a number of programs for women that include a 62 beds of emergency shelter at its Clough Street facility, as well as having a court advocacy program for victims of domestic violence, a teen parenting program, a healthy relationship curriculum program in the Springfield public schools and many more.

For more information about the services the organization offers, go to www.ywworks.org. There is a hotline – 733-7100 or 1-800-796-8711 – for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

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