Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement

by Tarana Burke

wrong. Nothing is your fault. Nothing at all. You are not a bad child. You are not in any trouble. Do you understand?” Kaia nodded slowly in agreement, still crying. I could tell they weren’t convinced, but I wanted to give them space to get there on their own. They laid in my lap for a while, whimpering and crying while I played with their hair. After some time, Kaia sat up and began to tell me the story of what happened to them. They were five and at a 21C summer camp. They told me who was involved and all the details as I fought to suppress my anger. They apologized again for not telling me because they thought they would get in trouble. And then, I realized that I had not yet done my part. In all the time I had spent thinking about and developing ‘me too,’ I was always clear that it had to revolve around the power of empathy, but I didn’t share my story in the workshops. I had been trying to get Kaia to tell me whether something had happened to them, but I had never shared what had happened to me. “My baby, listen.” I raised them up so that we were facing each other. “When I was a little girl, a similar thing happened to me. That’s why when I tell you that you are not to blame I know what I am talking about.” Kaia looked up at me, wide eyed with disbelief. “Mommy, someone did that to you?” “Yes, a long time ago when I was about the same age as you were.” It took everything in me to keep my composure, but then Kaia threw their arms around me and I couldn’t any more. “I’...