‘You Cannot Take From Me What Is Mine’: Tarana Burke, ‘Me Too’ Movement Founder

Tarana Burke created the “Me Too” movement 15 years before #MeToo
went viral in the wake of the 2017 Harvey Weinstein scandal. On Art
of Power, she tells host Aarti Shahani how she did it. Burke,
author of the new memoir Unbound, said she had to fight with
herself before she could even say the words “me too” out loud. She
had to build a grassroots movement in the shadows, in defiance of
movement leaders who wanted her to fight against racism, not gender
violence and sexism. And she had to reclaim her movement after it
appeared to be hijacked by the white Hollywood establishment.
Overwhelmed by the visibility and attention of #MeToo, Burke said,
“I really shrunk.” It took time to realize her only limits were the
ones she put on herself. Though, she jokes, “that would have
sounded like Kumbaya nonsense to me before.”