Tarana Burke's Quotes

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.

Tarana Burke

Smoking is definitely not cool anymore, and the folks who have worked against that have done a great job.

Tarana Burke

Black women have been screaming about famous predators like R&B singer R. Kelly, who allegedly preys on black girls, for well over a decade to no avail.

Tarana Burke

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

Tarana Burke

I started doing organizing work as a teenager. I was part of an organization called the 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement at 14.

Tarana Burke

So many people who deal with sexual harassment don't have the means to file lawsuits or to get legal representation or legal advice.

Tarana Burke

Patriarchy doesn't just make men out to be ogres. Women buy into the patriarchy as well, and women make those comments as well, like, 'Boys will be boys.' Women have to undo that stuff, too.

Tarana Burke

For every R. Kelly or Bill Cosby or Harvey Weinstein, there's, you know, the owner of the grocery store, the coach, the teacher, the neighbor, who are doing the same things. But we don't pay attention until it's a big name. And we don't pay attention 'til it's a big celebrity.

Tarana Burke

There's a power in empathy.

Tarana Burke

These movements aren't about anger. We're not angrily saying 'Black Lives Matter.' We're declaring it. It's a declaration. We want to be seen as robust, full human beings that have anger and have joy. We want to be able to just freely have that joy. Like everybody else does.

Tarana Burke

What's interesting to me is that people engage survivors from a place of pity all the time - a place of sympathy.

Tarana Burke