Tarana Burke

- Head of "Girls for Gender Equity" and co-founder of the #MeToo movement

The #MeToo movement burst into public view last fall. But its origins come from Tarana Burke, a Bronx born and bred civil rights activist who came up with the phrase in 2006.

Since last fall, she’s been everywhere — she was featured in Time magazine’s Person of the Year issue, along with other “silence breakers” who have spoken out about sexual assault, and appeared as Michelle Williams’ guest at the Golden Globes to draw attention to the issue and given countless interviews.

The #MeToo movement has taken firm root, sparking a wave of legislation in states across the country intended to address sexual assault and harassment, and has encouraged women and men to come forward with their stories, helping destigmatize victims of sexual violence.

Burke told Playbook she expects those victims to play a larger role in the political process going forward.

“I think that one of the mistakes that people make is engaging survivors of sexual violence from a place of pity as opposed to a place of power,” Burke said.

“What this moment in history has shown us is that there is power in numbers and we are more than just survivors looking for services, we are a constituency looking for change.”

“I expect to see that impact of this movement growing to reverberate in the upcoming elections,” she said.

She said she hopes to see more news reports about lesser recognized victims of sexual violence — the poor, nonwhite people whose stories have garnered less attention than the accounts of famous women and actresses. That responsibility lies with the media, she said.

“When the #MeToo movement started and went viral, it was everyday people all around the world. The fact that the stories continue to be about famous white women, has everything to do with who the media places attention on,” she said.

Ariel Zwang, CEO of Safe Horizon, a nonprofit serving victims of abuse and domestic violence, said the movement has had an extraordinary impact — her organization saw a 40 percent increase in calls to its rape and sexual assault hotline in the months after the MeToo hashtag went viral.

“Safe Horizon and the nation owe the #MeToo movement to Tarana Burke, who started this conversation back in 2006," Zwang told Playbook.

Burke, who is senior director of the group Girls for Gender Equity in Brooklyn, which provides development programs and classes for young women of color, said she is planning to channel the recognition the #MeToo movement has brought her into developing more programs for sexual assault survivors.

“Celebrity doesn’t serve me unless it advances the work that I’m doing,” she said.

“We are institutionalizing the work that has been going on for quite some time. Now we have an opportunity to institutionalize that and scale it up so we can provide services to people,” she added.

“For the rest of the year, for the rest of my life, it will be about providing survivors with resources,” she said. — Laura Nahmias

Headshot by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images. Story photo by Kris Connor/Getty Images for Comedy Central.

CORRECTION at 10:15 a.m. on April 23, 2018: An earlier version of this profile said Burke attended the Oscars. She actually attended the Golden Globes. The profile also incorrectly said Burke appeared on the cover of Time magazine’s person of the year issue. She was featured in the magazine, but not on the cover.

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