so I want to take a quick survey for a
moment I want you to think back to a
time when you were made to feel small
when someone who had more power than you
use their position to either invalidate
your experience or try to convince you
that your voice doesn’t have value I’ve
had plenty of those experiences and if
so we have something in common and we
were able to learn about a commonality
just by saying me too as juvenile as a
phrase might seem it’s pretty powerful
although we tend to use it during
friendly or casual conversations over
small talk it’s a simple method that we
all use to communicate our shared
interests and overall humanity so it’s
no wonder that in our contemporary world
the phrase meets who has evolved to
represent something much bigger it’s
become a symbol for survivors of sexual
violence and harassment so I have one
more request if you know someone
regardless of their gender identity who
has had a me-too moment please raise
your hand me too
I started working at a fast food
restaurant during the summer of my
sophomore year of high school
and for three years I witnessed and
experienced countless moments that
caused me to question the state of
humanity moments that range from a male
co-worker sexually assaulting a female
co-worker and once being promoted to a
shift manager having to vie for the same
respect given to my male colleagues
while navigating through sexist and
Aegeus perceptions of my authority in
the restaurant long story short my first
minimum-wage job exposed me to a lot yet
regardless of how morally unsound the
work environment proved to be I chose to
stay because the pay was more than good
the managers are willing to give a
hard-working high schooler who was
struggling financially at home with
full-time hours according to the Harvard
Business Review
90% of female and maybe 70% of male
service workers have experienced some
sort of sexual harassment either from
the managers co-workers or customers yet
our experiences are rarely ever reported
because of the system that values
customer service over human decency from
having so plasterer a fake smile for
tips to feeling restrained from some
fronting rude or predatory customers the
service restaurant industry that I
experienced was a cesspool and it would
be lazy to assert that this type of
predatory behavior is unique to the
individual in fact its perpetuated by a
system and supported by other
high-powered players
Rinku sins article front of the house
back of the house describes a New York
restaurant that would systematically
reserve its front-of-the-house jobs
first white workers and preserve its the
scraps for its immigrant workers who are
stationed in the back of the house since
article illustrates that for minimum
wage jobs workers are being exploited to
further capitalist and oppressive
agendas and to think this is all being
done to enhance customer service at the
restaurant I worked sexist and
capitalist the structure is merged to
form a delicious Molotov cocktail I was
placed in a position where it was my job
to make people comfortable while it
shipped me of the power to call out
discomfort for a moment I want you all
to think about the me2 movement who have
you seen in the mainstream media
now think about who you haven’t seen
ever since the me2 movement was
propelled into popular culture its
founder tirana Berg has been adamant
about ensuring that its narrative
continues to empower survivors from all
walks of life back in 2006 one bird
coined the phrase me too it was an
effort to provide black and brown girls
of a space to heal from their
experiences with sexual violence in her
it was a valiant effort to provide those
in society that are often rendered
voiceless with a platform when we have
the society failed to include the
spectrum of sexual violence in our
mainstream accounts what are we doing
here we are engaging in a form of
erasure we are failing to provide an
adequate representation of what this
movement truly looks like it doesn’t
always involve flashy press releases or
expensive lawsuits sometimes it looks
like a service worker being
inappropriately touched in the back of a
fast-food restaurant so while it’s
important that we’re now having a timely
conversation about what this movement
means and looks like in our society it
is imperative that we do more through to
enlarge this conversation and eradicate
these structures as customers we all on
a small scale have the power to call out
and change our abusive behavior and that
change is going to look different for
every single person in this room but if
we all agree that sexual violence and
harassment can no longer pervade our
industries please say me too now look
around
that’s your commonality we all on a
grand scale have a sphere of influence
and are empowered to not only invite
more survivors to save me too
but are empowered to encourage those
around us to join us and to declare no more thank you
moment I want you to think back to a
time when you were made to feel small
when someone who had more power than you
use their position to either invalidate
your experience or try to convince you
that your voice doesn’t have value I’ve
had plenty of those experiences and if
so we have something in common and we
were able to learn about a commonality
just by saying me too as juvenile as a
phrase might seem it’s pretty powerful
although we tend to use it during
friendly or casual conversations over
small talk it’s a simple method that we
all use to communicate our shared
interests and overall humanity so it’s
no wonder that in our contemporary world
the phrase meets who has evolved to
represent something much bigger it’s
become a symbol for survivors of sexual
violence and harassment so I have one
more request if you know someone
regardless of their gender identity who
has had a me-too moment please raise
your hand me too
I started working at a fast food
restaurant during the summer of my
sophomore year of high school
and for three years I witnessed and
experienced countless moments that
caused me to question the state of
humanity moments that range from a male
co-worker sexually assaulting a female
co-worker and once being promoted to a
shift manager having to vie for the same
respect given to my male colleagues
while navigating through sexist and
Aegeus perceptions of my authority in
the restaurant long story short my first
minimum-wage job exposed me to a lot yet
regardless of how morally unsound the
work environment proved to be I chose to
stay because the pay was more than good
the managers are willing to give a
hard-working high schooler who was
struggling financially at home with
full-time hours according to the Harvard
Business Review
90% of female and maybe 70% of male
service workers have experienced some
sort of sexual harassment either from
the managers co-workers or customers yet
our experiences are rarely ever reported
because of the system that values
customer service over human decency from
having so plasterer a fake smile for
tips to feeling restrained from some
fronting rude or predatory customers the
service restaurant industry that I
experienced was a cesspool and it would
be lazy to assert that this type of
predatory behavior is unique to the
individual in fact its perpetuated by a
system and supported by other
high-powered players
Rinku sins article front of the house
back of the house describes a New York
restaurant that would systematically
reserve its front-of-the-house jobs
first white workers and preserve its the
scraps for its immigrant workers who are
stationed in the back of the house since
article illustrates that for minimum
wage jobs workers are being exploited to
further capitalist and oppressive
agendas and to think this is all being
done to enhance customer service at the
restaurant I worked sexist and
capitalist the structure is merged to
form a delicious Molotov cocktail I was
placed in a position where it was my job
to make people comfortable while it
shipped me of the power to call out
discomfort for a moment I want you all
to think about the me2 movement who have
you seen in the mainstream media
now think about who you haven’t seen
ever since the me2 movement was
propelled into popular culture its
founder tirana Berg has been adamant
about ensuring that its narrative
continues to empower survivors from all
walks of life back in 2006 one bird
coined the phrase me too it was an
effort to provide black and brown girls
of a space to heal from their
experiences with sexual violence in her
it was a valiant effort to provide those
in society that are often rendered
voiceless with a platform when we have
the society failed to include the
spectrum of sexual violence in our
mainstream accounts what are we doing
here we are engaging in a form of
erasure we are failing to provide an
adequate representation of what this
movement truly looks like it doesn’t
always involve flashy press releases or
expensive lawsuits sometimes it looks
like a service worker being
inappropriately touched in the back of a
fast-food restaurant so while it’s
important that we’re now having a timely
conversation about what this movement
means and looks like in our society it
is imperative that we do more through to
enlarge this conversation and eradicate
these structures as customers we all on
a small scale have the power to call out
and change our abusive behavior and that
change is going to look different for
every single person in this room but if
we all agree that sexual violence and
harassment can no longer pervade our
industries please say me too now look
around
that’s your commonality we all on a
grand scale have a sphere of influence
and are empowered to not only invite
more survivors to save me too
but are empowered to encourage those
around us to join us and to declare no more thank you
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