When Tarana Burke visited Michigan State’s campus this past April, her message and story was not only informative, but also impactful. She was able to share her own personal stories and challenges in-regards to sexual assault and how we address it as a society. Burke began her speech by talking about the origin of the “Me too” movement. She stated that she grew up around a lot of activist in her family and started to be an activist at age 14. Originally “Me too” was a phrase that she created in correlation to her original organization that she stated called “Just be.” “Just Be” was created in Selma,Alabama for black and brown girls to build self esteem. By talking and connecting to these 7th and 8th grade girls, she began to learn about …show more content…
Michigan State’s handling, or frankly lack there of handling of sexual assault cases has been appalling to say the least. Administrators have chosen not to address the multiple institutional issues we have in our community and have repeatedly tried to pay off survivors in the past with large monetary gifts for their silence. This past year has been extremely trying and irritating for not only survivors, but also the rest of the Michigan State community. However, I think that it is important to remember and utilize Burke’s thoughts about joy and accountability when moving forward. We need to learn from these atrocities and we need to set an example for other universities and institutions that this will not be tolerated and the survivors will not be tolerated. Our situation needs to be used a learning tool so that something that is this horrible will never happen again. As a community, we need to restore the joy that we used to have when mentioning Michigan State. We need own what has happened, we need to be held accountable, and we need to change the culture that we have become accustom too. The victims need to be listened too and not shamed for staying silent out of fear and retaliation. I think that Burke’s appearance on campus progression in our communities effort to talk about the issues regarding sexual assault and how we tackle this issue. I hope that in the future, Michigan State can have other speakers on campus to talk about other societal issues to keep the discussion and open communication