Tarana Burke Quotes

Tarana Burke

Profession : Activist

Birth : September 12, 1973

We have to trust the voices of the community to be in leadership and know what we need for our communities.

Tarana Burke

When one person says, 'Yeah, me, too,' it gives permission for others to open up.

Tarana Burke

If I found a healing tree in my backyard, and it grew some sort of fruit that was a healing balm for people to repair what was damaged, I'm not going to just harvest all of those fruits and say, 'You cant have this.' If I have a cure for people, I'm going to share it.

Tarana Burke

Get up. Stand up. Speak up. Do something.

Tarana Burke

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

Tarana Burke

Violence is violence. Trauma is trauma. And we are taught to downplay it, even think about it as child's play.

Tarana Burke

I think that Me Too is for everybody. I think it's important that people feel validated.

Tarana Burke

If we don't center the voices of marginalized people, we're doing the wrong work.

Tarana Burke

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

Tarana Burke

Social media is not a safe space.

Tarana Burke

You cannot put a song - you cannot put a person's talent over somebody's humanity. That's just insane.

Tarana Burke

We want to turn victims into survivors - and survivors into thrivers.

Tarana Burke

I founded the Me Too Movement because there was a void in the community that I was in. There were gaps in services. There was dearth in resources, and I saw young people - I saw black and brown girls - who are hurting and who needed something that just wasn't there.

Tarana Burke

We have to come together and speak honestly about what the barriers are within our community - and then tear them down. It's really that simple.

Tarana Burke

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

Tarana Burke

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

Tarana Burke

Social media is so immediate and in your face that I know many people have been helped and many people who have been traumatised by their entire timeline filled with 'me too.'

Tarana Burke

Sexual harassment does bring shame.

Tarana Burke

I don't think that every single case of sexual harassment has to result in someone being fired; the consequences should vary. But we need a shift in culture so that every single instance of sexual harassment is investigated and dealt with. That's just basic common sense.

Tarana Burke

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.

Tarana Burke