Speaking to the Daily Dot, Burke said she’s found the past year to be a mix of emotions. On one hand, she said, she thinks it’s great to have this expanded platform to advocate for the 12-year-old Me Too Movement she helped create, which specifically helps Black women and girl survivors of sexual violence, as well as an opportunity to talk about the work that the movement has been doing. On the other hand, Burke said it’s been “heart-wrenching” to watch people misuse the movement and weaponize #MeToo.
“Sexual violence clearly does not discriminate and affects people regardless of their political affiliations. We have to do something about the way that [sexual violence] is so pervasive in our communities,” Burke said. “I just knew that this would be the one place where we could maybe avoid politics, but I was certainly wrong about that.”
While Burke didn’t anticipate the ways in which Me Too would be politicized, the discomfort and outright vitriol both Republicans and Democrats have used at opportune times to respond to the movement makes sense when Burke explains Me Too’s inherent goal. While the behaviors of “bad men” such as Harvey Weinstein and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh have been under the spotlight throughout the past year, Me Too isn’t about focusing on bad actors and singular events, but about interrogating unchecked power and privilege and the systems that afford such. When we move toward checking that power, Burke says, people get nervous, uncomfortable, and want to push back.