we’ve been living in this moment which
is part of a larger movement the me2
movement right to end sexual violence
and support the survivors for about a
year now
what have we learned I think that we’ve
learned how to see patterns and systems
where we used to only see individuals
and single stories it’s a lesson that we
can and need to apply to other areas but
first I want to break down how we got
this new skill those old victim blaming
lies like they were asking for it
didn’t they know better than to those
old lies stopped working and I think
they stopped working because we humanize
the victims we saw them as full beings
worthy of standing up for because they
are and we got real with ourselves about
the sad fact that these aren’t isolated
incidents we’re a society of violence
and sexual violence it’s far more common
than we care to admit and as the stories
continued we started asking questions
like what do we do when it’s not just
the bad ones that are at fault what do
we do when people who are in positions
of power violate the humanity of others
how do we support victims rather than
blame them
and what does accountability look like
and as the number of stories continue to
grow the pattern of sexual violence
became more and more clear the stories
all too similar and we were seeing
people in the mainstream understanding
and sharing that they too were victims
of sexual violence people we knew
personally or on-screen we’re sharing
their stories and it became harder to
blame the victim because they weren’t
someone in a far-off headline in the
news they were someone that we knew or
that we admired and so across lines of
difference across gender and sexual
orientation and religious difference
political affiliation we were making
space for those stories we were having
complex conversations about
accountability and systemic change
oftentimes with sexual violence the
perpetrators go nameless well me to
change that we had to wrestle with this
idea that people we thought we knew
people who entertained us or we voted
for there was part of them we didn’t
know and we had to reckon with that
truth they also were single stories a
part of a bigger system and as the light
shone on that bigger system some people
said oh oh not all men and it’s true not
all men are perpetrators of sexual
violence but embedded in that not all
men reaction is this idea that oh it’s
just a few bad apples yeah in reality we
have some bad apples but the barrel is
rotten in many ways our society
sanctions this behavior and in some ways
it enables that encourages it and some
of the stories of violence we we learned
that it was a dirty little well known
secret but our culture was also willing
to turn a blind eye and that’s what I
mean when I say the barrel is rotten our
society sanctions and Able’s encourages
and sometimes turns a blind eye to
sexual violence and so it’s not it’s not
surprising then that we would see this
behavior from some men yes there are bad
apples but they’re a product of the
barrel in which they’re living their
behaviors awful but it’s not
unexplainable when we see it in the
larger context of sexism
me – has reframed the public narrative
around sexual violence away from this
idea that it’s just a few bad apples to
seeing and wrestling with the larger
system of sexism and sexual violence on
a societal and systemic level now we’re
trying to change the pattern not just
blame the victims and make excuses for
the perpetrators me too has forced us to
see a different story a more complex
story part of that complexity has been
the inclusion of race and class
some people said the only reason that
we’re caring about the me2 movement now
is because a number of famous white
women have shared their stories of
sexual violence after all tirana Burke a
black woman started the me to campaign
in 2006 yet we understand that this wave
has brought new appreciation and
recognition for Toronto Burke she was
invited to the Oscars as was i gen pou
of the National Domestic Workers
Alliance and suddenly we’re not just
talking about sexual violence for white
women we’re looking at the issue through
the lens of race and class we’re
accepting the complexity in having more
nuanced conversations about this issue
than we ever have and so it got me
thinking could we apply the lessons of
me2 to other areas like maybe we can use
what we understand about one unfair
system and help ourselves understand
another type of unfair system and so I
started to think about you know could we
apply the lessons and the empathy and
the analysis that we’ve learned from me
to to race and then I remembered wait a
minute I did a study on this in 2009 I
actually asked a group of white college
students their attitudes about sexism
and racism and what we found is that
when they had an awareness of race and
they had feminist attitudes that
included an understanding of race and
class and the fact that they also
impacted women which we called inclusive
feminism that they were more likely to
be anti-racist however when they had
feminist attitudes that did not include
an understanding of race and class they
were not more likely to be actively
anti-racist so the conclusion that we
drew was rather than seeing anti racism
and sexism as completely separate
inclusive feminism was like fertilizer
increasing the likelihood that people
would be aware of race and be actively
anti-racist and so if research models
real life which we academics always hope
is true the framework is there we can
apply the lessons of me to if we want to
and that’s why I’m hopeful I’m hopeful
that we can take the fight the fervor
the fed up feelings that we feel about
sexual violence as a result of me too
combined with the awareness of race and
class that we have in this moment and it
can be like fertilizer increasing our
rate of growth and understanding and
analysis that’s called for in the
movement for black lives the movement
for black lives is concerned with the
humanity and dignity of black people but
it also has a vision for the liberation
of all oppressed people there are a
number of platforms but one that’s
gotten a lot of attention is police
violence I believe that we can apply the
lessons of me2 to solving for police
violence because they have some common
traits both involve perpetrators that
historically go unquestioned and victims
police are said to protect and serve yet
in 2017 alone police killed over 1000
individuals in the United States 25
percent of them wore black and black
people only make up 13% of the
population in 2015
30% of black victims who were killed by
police were unarmed
compared to 21% of white victims and on
average black people are three times
more likely to be killed by police what
these facts make clear is that a
profession that many trusts is causing
harm I want us to wrestle with these
truths we are a society of violence and
police violence disproportionately
impacting black people is far more
common than we care to admit what’s
missing in the conversation about police
violence is the ability to see the
humanity in the victims who are so
quickly seen as aggressive and dangerous
this is the point where the empathy that
we’ve learned from me too is most useful
to humanize the victims of police
violence requires us to see them as full
beings who are worthy of standing up for
because they are and it requires us to
get real with ourselves about the fact
that these aren’t isolated incidents and
have the courage to see the pattern in
the single stories of police violence
the stories all too similar and so yes
when it comes to police officers we have
some bad apples and the barrel in which
they’re operating is rotten holding
these two truths at the same time is
what I believe is needed to move from
blaming to change because it’s what
changed the conversation about sexual
violence they were asking for it maybe
they shouldn’t dress that way didn’t
they know better than to those victim
blaming lies can cease
be acceptable explanations we need to
start asking what do we do when it’s not
just the bad ones that are at fault what
do we do when people who are in
positions of power violate the humanity
of others how do we support victims
rather than blame them and what does
accountability look like perhaps it’s
being a black woman potentially
potentially targeted by both sexual
violence and racialized police violence
that makes me keenly aware of these
connections and possibilities what I’m
asking of you today is this don’t wait
for either of these forms of violence to
hit close to home before you’re willing
to act apply the lessons of nitu to the
movement for black lives reject victim
blaming seek accountability rather than
accept the status quo be willing to take
a critical look at the barrel and not
just the individual apples and be brave
enough to name the patterns created by
the single stories be part of ending
violence period thank you [Applause]
is part of a larger movement the me2
movement right to end sexual violence
and support the survivors for about a
year now
what have we learned I think that we’ve
learned how to see patterns and systems
where we used to only see individuals
and single stories it’s a lesson that we
can and need to apply to other areas but
first I want to break down how we got
this new skill those old victim blaming
lies like they were asking for it
didn’t they know better than to those
old lies stopped working and I think
they stopped working because we humanize
the victims we saw them as full beings
worthy of standing up for because they
are and we got real with ourselves about
the sad fact that these aren’t isolated
incidents we’re a society of violence
and sexual violence it’s far more common
than we care to admit and as the stories
continued we started asking questions
like what do we do when it’s not just
the bad ones that are at fault what do
we do when people who are in positions
of power violate the humanity of others
how do we support victims rather than
blame them
and what does accountability look like
and as the number of stories continue to
grow the pattern of sexual violence
became more and more clear the stories
all too similar and we were seeing
people in the mainstream understanding
and sharing that they too were victims
of sexual violence people we knew
personally or on-screen we’re sharing
their stories and it became harder to
blame the victim because they weren’t
someone in a far-off headline in the
news they were someone that we knew or
that we admired and so across lines of
difference across gender and sexual
orientation and religious difference
political affiliation we were making
space for those stories we were having
complex conversations about
accountability and systemic change
oftentimes with sexual violence the
perpetrators go nameless well me to
change that we had to wrestle with this
idea that people we thought we knew
people who entertained us or we voted
for there was part of them we didn’t
know and we had to reckon with that
truth they also were single stories a
part of a bigger system and as the light
shone on that bigger system some people
said oh oh not all men and it’s true not
all men are perpetrators of sexual
violence but embedded in that not all
men reaction is this idea that oh it’s
just a few bad apples yeah in reality we
have some bad apples but the barrel is
rotten in many ways our society
sanctions this behavior and in some ways
it enables that encourages it and some
of the stories of violence we we learned
that it was a dirty little well known
secret but our culture was also willing
to turn a blind eye and that’s what I
mean when I say the barrel is rotten our
society sanctions and Able’s encourages
and sometimes turns a blind eye to
sexual violence and so it’s not it’s not
surprising then that we would see this
behavior from some men yes there are bad
apples but they’re a product of the
barrel in which they’re living their
behaviors awful but it’s not
unexplainable when we see it in the
larger context of sexism
me – has reframed the public narrative
around sexual violence away from this
idea that it’s just a few bad apples to
seeing and wrestling with the larger
system of sexism and sexual violence on
a societal and systemic level now we’re
trying to change the pattern not just
blame the victims and make excuses for
the perpetrators me too has forced us to
see a different story a more complex
story part of that complexity has been
the inclusion of race and class
some people said the only reason that
we’re caring about the me2 movement now
is because a number of famous white
women have shared their stories of
sexual violence after all tirana Burke a
black woman started the me to campaign
in 2006 yet we understand that this wave
has brought new appreciation and
recognition for Toronto Burke she was
invited to the Oscars as was i gen pou
of the National Domestic Workers
Alliance and suddenly we’re not just
talking about sexual violence for white
women we’re looking at the issue through
the lens of race and class we’re
accepting the complexity in having more
nuanced conversations about this issue
than we ever have and so it got me
thinking could we apply the lessons of
me2 to other areas like maybe we can use
what we understand about one unfair
system and help ourselves understand
another type of unfair system and so I
started to think about you know could we
apply the lessons and the empathy and
the analysis that we’ve learned from me
to to race and then I remembered wait a
minute I did a study on this in 2009 I
actually asked a group of white college
students their attitudes about sexism
and racism and what we found is that
when they had an awareness of race and
they had feminist attitudes that
included an understanding of race and
class and the fact that they also
impacted women which we called inclusive
feminism that they were more likely to
be anti-racist however when they had
feminist attitudes that did not include
an understanding of race and class they
were not more likely to be actively
anti-racist so the conclusion that we
drew was rather than seeing anti racism
and sexism as completely separate
inclusive feminism was like fertilizer
increasing the likelihood that people
would be aware of race and be actively
anti-racist and so if research models
real life which we academics always hope
is true the framework is there we can
apply the lessons of me to if we want to
and that’s why I’m hopeful I’m hopeful
that we can take the fight the fervor
the fed up feelings that we feel about
sexual violence as a result of me too
combined with the awareness of race and
class that we have in this moment and it
can be like fertilizer increasing our
rate of growth and understanding and
analysis that’s called for in the
movement for black lives the movement
for black lives is concerned with the
humanity and dignity of black people but
it also has a vision for the liberation
of all oppressed people there are a
number of platforms but one that’s
gotten a lot of attention is police
violence I believe that we can apply the
lessons of me2 to solving for police
violence because they have some common
traits both involve perpetrators that
historically go unquestioned and victims
police are said to protect and serve yet
in 2017 alone police killed over 1000
individuals in the United States 25
percent of them wore black and black
people only make up 13% of the
population in 2015
30% of black victims who were killed by
police were unarmed
compared to 21% of white victims and on
average black people are three times
more likely to be killed by police what
these facts make clear is that a
profession that many trusts is causing
harm I want us to wrestle with these
truths we are a society of violence and
police violence disproportionately
impacting black people is far more
common than we care to admit what’s
missing in the conversation about police
violence is the ability to see the
humanity in the victims who are so
quickly seen as aggressive and dangerous
this is the point where the empathy that
we’ve learned from me too is most useful
to humanize the victims of police
violence requires us to see them as full
beings who are worthy of standing up for
because they are and it requires us to
get real with ourselves about the fact
that these aren’t isolated incidents and
have the courage to see the pattern in
the single stories of police violence
the stories all too similar and so yes
when it comes to police officers we have
some bad apples and the barrel in which
they’re operating is rotten holding
these two truths at the same time is
what I believe is needed to move from
blaming to change because it’s what
changed the conversation about sexual
violence they were asking for it maybe
they shouldn’t dress that way didn’t
they know better than to those victim
blaming lies can cease
be acceptable explanations we need to
start asking what do we do when it’s not
just the bad ones that are at fault what
do we do when people who are in
positions of power violate the humanity
of others how do we support victims
rather than blame them and what does
accountability look like perhaps it’s
being a black woman potentially
potentially targeted by both sexual
violence and racialized police violence
that makes me keenly aware of these
connections and possibilities what I’m
asking of you today is this don’t wait
for either of these forms of violence to
hit close to home before you’re willing
to act apply the lessons of nitu to the
movement for black lives reject victim
blaming seek accountability rather than
accept the status quo be willing to take
a critical look at the barrel and not
just the individual apples and be brave
enough to name the patterns created by
the single stories be part of ending
violence period thank you [Applause]
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