Tarana Burke Quotes

'Me Too' is about letting - using the power of empathy to stomp out shame.

I pray that people will stand by women who have been violated and victimized.

I didn't start Me Too as a hashtag, and had I had the opportunity to, I probably wouldn't have done it that way. I think that what has happened subsequently has been beautiful to watch, but what concerns me is what all of these survivors are going to do now.

'Me too' became a term that was both succinct and powerful, and it was a way to ring up immediate empathy between survivors.

I think that a lot of times people don't understand the bravery that's involved with the Me Too movement.

The work of #MeToo is about healing. It's about healing as individuals and healing as communities.

In many regards, Me Too is about survivors talking to survivors.

I've never experienced sexual harassment at work, but I 100% believe and support everyone that has come forward, because I'm very lucky that it has never happened to me.

I hope we can form a community where a woman can speak up about abuse and not suffer another abuse by not being believed and instead being ridiculed.

We use a term called 'empowerment through empathy.' And 'Me Too' is so powerful, because somebody had said it to me - right? - and it changed the trajectory of my healing process once I heard that.

I founded the 'me too' movement in 2006 because I wanted to find a way to connect with the black and brown girls in the program I ran.

'Me Too' became the way to succinctly and powerfully connect with other people and give people permission to start their journey to heal.

People ask me what men can do, and I tell them, even if you're not a perpetrator, you should believe women - or queer folks - when they say that they have been violated.

Everyone deals with trauma differently, and recovery is always a work in progress. But courage is contagious, and the more that people stand up and speak out against misogyny, the faster we can create the kind of world where we won't have to.

In fact, I had never imagined that seven years after my ordeal, the #MeToo movement will start and that I will be talking about it all over again. This is nothing but karma. Dibakar has directed six films, even though I didn't get any films after I went public with my allegations.

'Me too' was just two words; it's two magic words that galvanised the world.

Like every woman, I do have a #MeToo story, but if somebody wants to share something personal, they should do it when they want to, not because there is a movement or someone else is talking about it.

I'm a real freedom fighter. I'm not a pretend freedom fighter. I stand up for other actresses, other people.

The #metoo campaign picked up speed after the actress Alyssa Milano suggested that if every woman simply typed 'me too' on their platform of choice, they might give the world a true sense of the magnitude of the problem. The hope is that safety in numbers might minimize the shame many women feel in admitting that this has happened to them.

You're a coward if you don't stand up. Not for you, but for women. Say something.

People need to stand up, women need to stand up for each other and say, "No you can't kick this person like they're a dog. You can disagree with someone politically, you can have arguments, definitely privilege needs to be discussed in real productive and valid ways. But it's not real criticism if it's just like, "you're a disgusting bad person."

As women, we must stand up for ourselves. We must stand up for each other. We must stand up for justice for all.

If we're for one another, we're feminists. The rest is semantics.

If it was all about me, I'd do a whole lot of pop records, make a whole lot of money, just rake in the dough. But it's never been all about me. It's all about being a voice for the voiceless. People who can't speak for themselves, who don't have a mic, don't have a say.

As long as there is rape... there is not going to be any peace or justice or equality or freedom. You are not going to become what you want to become or who you want to become. You are not going to live in the world you want to live in.