Tarana Burke

Tarana Burke – Life, Career, and Famous Quotes

Discover the life, activism, and legacy of Tarana Burke — the visionary founder of the Me Too movement. Explore her early life, philosophy, key milestones, and powerful quotes that continue to inspire global change.

Introduction

Tarana Burke, born September 12, 1973, is an American activist, organizer, and writer whose work has reshaped global conversations on sexual violence, empathy, healing, and social justice. Best known as the founder of the Me Too movement, she has dedicated decades to uplifting marginalized voices, especially Black women and girls, and to building community-centered frameworks for survivor support. Her journey from grassroots organizing to global influence is a powerful testament to persistence, empathy, and systemic change.

Early Life and Family

Tarana J. Burke was born in The Bronx, New York City, on September 12, 1973. She grew up in a working-class environment in public housing, in a household marked by economic struggle and community constraints. From a young age, she experienced trauma, including sexual abuse, which profoundly shaped her understanding of vulnerability, safety, and the need for collective healing. Her mother played a significant role in encouraging her to seek community, activism, and connection rather than silence.

These early experiences infused in her a sensitivity to how pain is hidden, how voices are silenced, and how communities need caring structures to address harm.

Youth and Education

At age 14, Tarana joined the 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement, a youth development organization addressing racial justice, housing inequality, and youth empowerment. Her involvement helped shape her early activism, as she worked on campaigns including support for the Central Park Five and confronting systemic misrepresentation of young Black and Latino men in media.

For higher education, Burke first attended Alabama State University, then transferred to Auburn University at Montgomery, earning a BA. During her college years, she remained active: organizing press conferences and protests on racial justice and economic inequality.

After graduation, she moved to Selma, Alabama, deepening her on-the-ground community work.

Career and Achievements

Early Organizing and Just Be, Inc.

In Selma and later beyond, Burke’s activism intertwined racial justice, arts, and gender equity. In 2003, she co-founded Just Be, Inc., a nonprofit designed to support Black girls (ages 12 to 18) through mentorship, workshops, and healing-centered programming. It was in this context, working with survivors in marginalized communities, that Burke first began using the phrase “me too” to validate and connect survivors of sexual violence and abuse.

The Birth and Growth of Me Too

In 2006, Burke formally launched what would become known as the “Me Too” movement—originally as a grassroots campaign to foster empathy, connection, and support among survivors of sexual violence, particularly women and girls of color. The core principle was “empowerment through empathy” — that hearing “me too” from another person can break isolation and spark healing. For years, it operated quietly within community networks, building trust, resources, and survivor-centered practices.

The movement’s visibility exploded in 2017, when actress Alyssa Milano used the hashtag #MeToo in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, encouraging survivors to tweet “Me Too” if they had experienced harassment or assault. Millions of people across the globe engaged, giving the movement unprecedented scale and media attention. Burke embraced this moment, emphasizing that the viral phenomenon must remain centered on survivors, on accountability, and on systemic change—not celebrity or sensationalism.

In 2018, she founded me too. International, a nonprofit entity designed to steward the movement’s growth and to ensure survivor-centered, intersectional approaches. She also served as Senior Director at Girls for Gender Equity (GGE) in Brooklyn, focusing on programs for girls of color and structural equity in education, health, and rights.

Publications and Influence

Tarana Burke has authored, co-authored, or contributed to influential works:

• Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement (2021), a memoir that interweaves her personal history with the arc of the movement.

• You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience, co-written with Brené Brown, exploring identity, healing, and worth.

Her activism, leadership, and story have earned significant recognition:

• In 2017, she was named among Time’s “Silence Breakers” and honored as part of Person of the Year.

• She has been listed among Time’s 100 Most Influential People and received awards such as the Ridenhour Prize for Courage.

• Her work has been the subject of academic and media studies, such as “Leading with Empathy: Tarana Burke and the Making of the Me Too Movement” at Harvard.

Historical Milestones & Context

Roots in Intersectional Justice

Burke’s work did not emerge in a vacuum. Her activism has always integrated racial justice, gender equity, economic justice, and arts/cultural movements. She operated in cities like Selma, deeply steeped in civil rights history, and leveraged volunteer networks, youth organizing, and community relationships to sustain long-term change.

Viral Moment, Global Reach

The viral spread of #MeToo in 2017 marked a turning point: what had been a grassroots campaign became a global movement, altering public discourse on sexual violence, power, and accountability. Yet Burke has consistently emphasized that the movement’s real strength lies in sustaining support systems and structural change rather than fleeting publicity.

Expanding Focus & Intersectionality

Over time, the movement has grown to include more diverse survivor identities—transgender, queer, disabled, youth, and communities of color. Burke and her collaborators advocate not just for disclosure, but for healing access, legal reform, educational protocols, better institutional accountability, and shifts in cultural norms.

Resilience in the Face of Backlash

As the movement has scaled, it has faced criticism, appropriation, dilution, and legal setbacks. For instance, when Weinstein’s 2020 conviction was overturned in 2024, Burke reaffirmed that the movement’s influence transcends court decisions. She stresses that the legacy lies not solely in legal outcomes but in cultural shifts—making visible the many survivors and insisting that society continues evolving.

Legacy and Influence

Tarana Burke’s legacy is already profound and expanding:

• Global Movement-Building: What began as a local empathy project has grown into a worldwide conversation and organizing framework.

• Centering Survivor Leadership: Burke has consistently emphasized that survivors—not celebrities or institutions—should define how their healing and justice processes unfold.

• Cultural Shift on Silence: The phrase “me too” reshaped public language: it normalized admission of harm, reduced shame, and broke silence.

• Intersectionality in Practice: Burke pushed the movement to expand beyond a single-axis lens, advocating for inclusion of race, class, ability, gender identity, and other marginalized identities.

• Institutional and Policy Advocacy: Her work includes calls for reforms in how untested rape kits are handled, sexual harassment policies, background checks in schools, and legislative action such as the #MeToo Bill in the U.S.

• Inspiration for Self-Care & Healing: Beyond activism, Burke emphasizes emotional resilience, storytelling, community care, and confronting shame as necessary for sustainable social change.

As newer generations adopt her language and framework, her influence continues evolving across continents, languages, and movements.

Personality and Talents

Tarana Burke’s effectiveness stems not just from her ideas, but from qualities she embodies:

• Empathy and Listening: She foregrounds deep, relational understanding—listening to survivors, centering their voices, and resisting the impulse to speak over them.

• Humility and Accountability: Even as media spotlight grew, she often declined undue personal praise, redirecting attention to systems, communities, and collective work.

• Patience and Long-Term Vision: She has emphasized that transformation is generational, not instantaneous. Her work is rooted in building infrastructure, networks, and trust that take time.

• Courage and Vulnerability: Burke has spoken openly about her experiences with sexual violence, shame, and healing. She models that openness can be an act of leadership and connection.

• Storytelling Skill: Through speeches, writing, memoir, and public interviews, she weaves personal narrative with systemic critique, inviting empathy and action.

• Strategic Adaptability: She has navigated between grassroots organizing, nonprofit management, media, and policy arenas, adjusting tactics without losing core values.

Famous Quotes of Tarana Burke

Here are some powerful words from Tarana Burke that reflect her philosophy, pain, and hope:

“You deserve safety. You deserve protection. You deserve love. You deserve peace. Breathe beloved. Let’s do it together.”

“You cannot put a song — you cannot put a person’s talent over somebody’s humanity. That’s just insane.”

“We tell the world they don’t have to be anything but themselves to be worthy, and then we work until the stress is about to kill us to prove our worth.”

“What are you doing, Tarana? … I had to decide: Was I going to be who I said I was?”

“You can dodge a rock, but you can’t unhear a word. You can’t undo the intentional damage that some words have on your mind, body, and spirit.”

“When one person says, ‘Yeah, me, too,’ it gives permission for others to open up.”

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

“Never underestimate the impact of a small act of kindness. It can give someone the strength to keep fighting.”

These quotes illuminate central themes of her mission: worth, voice, empathy, healing, and the weight of words.

Lessons from Tarana Burke

1. Empathy as Strategy: Transforming movement practice from blame to connection lets survivors lead and shapes sustainable change.

2. Small acts matter: A simple “me too” or listening deeply can break cycles of silence.

3. Center the marginalized: True justice work elevates voices often excluded from media, funding, or institutional dialogues.

4. Healing is foundational: Social justice isn’t only external transformation—it requires internal repair, emotional resilience, and collective care.

5. Structures over moments: Viral virality is powerful, but real impact lies in building infrastructure—programs, accountability systems, resources—that endure.

6. Fragile recognition: Leadership does not always come with accolades. Burke’s humility reminds us that movements are bigger than individuals.

7. Adapt without compromising: She moved fluidly across community work, nonprofit structures, cultural spaces, and global media while holding her core values steady.

Conclusion

Tarana Burke’s life and work challenge us to rethink how we talk about harm, healing, silence, and power. She transformed what might have been a whispered “me too” into a global force—yet always with a survivor-centered compass and deep commitment to equity and justice.

Her legacy is not just a hashtag or movement, but a shift in how society holds individuals and institutions accountable, how we build community care, and how change happens over time. As you explore her work, you might ask: How can empathy, voice, and healing manifest in my own sphere? How do I center those often silenced?