Analysis Of Tarana Burke, The Founder Of The Meetoo Movement

Abstract

This research aims to understand how Tarana Burke, the founder of the Meetoo movement, perceives and responds to the backlash, mainly the accusation of “whitewashing”. By using discourse analysis, we will examine some of her public statements, interviews, and articles.

Introduction and background

In 1996, while Tarana Burke was working in a camp, a 13 year old girl came up to her asking for a private conversation. The little girl tried telling Burke about the sexual abuse that she encountered with her mother's boyfriend. Burke was horrified by her words and could not listen to the story anymore, while her emotions started to bottle up. She cut her off in the middle of the story and directed her to another female counselor who could

One of which is its lack of representation mainly in mainstream media of minority women in its leadership and broader discourse. Activist Charlene Carruthers stated “If wealthy, highly visible women in news and entertainment are sexually harassed, assaulted and raped- what do we think is happening to women in retail, food services and domestic work?”. It seems that minority women are overrepresented in industries with high rates of sexual harassment claims, such as hotels, health services, food services, and retail. Burke urges black women to remain engaged by saying “This is your movement, too”. The #MeeToo use of social media has created both unity and division within the movement. On one hand, the hashtag allowed a diverse range of victims to be heard,by creating a sense of global solidarity. On the other hand, the mainstream media’s focus on high profile and predominantly white celebrities led to the criticism of whitewashing and again the marginalization of minority women. The existing power dynamics can show itself even within social movements and reflect the social inequalities and continue to maintain them, even while they are trying to solve other forms of injustice.

Some critics of the movement, such as Neesha Powell, a black queer non binary woman survivor, says that she does not feel the movement represents her, although the movement was started by another woman whom she shares a common identity. She says that #MeToo stories of privileged cisgender, heterosexual white women have been most emphasized and brought forth so far. “ Because of white supremacy, white women are more likely than other women of color (WOC) to be believed and validated when disclosing sexual abuse, both online and in the real world”Neesha Powell