This is the first in a series of posts dedicated to exploring the #MeToo movement and its implications on our culture, our organizations, and on our lives as individuals. Over the next month, we will share our responses to this movement and the various reactions we are seeing to it. We hope that through this series, and our coinciding Let’s Talk About It! virtual learning lab series, “Affirming and Unpacking the #MeToo Movement”, we will be able to find concrete ways to move forward together to live more inclusively.
The #MeToo movement has catapulted into the limelight like few other social issues in recent times. Scores of women have mustered up the courage to very publicly declare, “Me too.” On a daily basis, the media is rife with new accounts of sexual abuse, primarily from celebrities and high-powered women in society.
The firestorm that the movement has created is so pervasive that PBS has developed a series called Metoo, Now what? hosted by Zainab Salbi, humanitarian, media host, author, and founder and former CEO of Washington-based Women for Women International. Designed to go beyond the headlines about sexual harassment, the series explores how we got here and how we move forward. The content is predicated on the premise that this is a complex issue which needs to be discussed in depth—one of the enduring social atrocities that for centuries has not been talked about.
The first episode called “The Reckoning” was presented as a panel discussion featuring Ijeoma Oluo, a writer who authored So You Want to Talk About Race and editor-at-large of the Establishment; Angela Rye, CNN commentator and NPR political analyst; and Nadine Strossen, who was the first female president of the ACLU where she served from 1991 to 2008.
The segment covered many aspects of the issue including power and privilege, the historic objectification of women, due process, backlash and nuances of race and class.
I want to focus on race and class for this first post in the series. During the PBS segment, Angela Rye pointed out that the #MeToo movement is not new. An African American woman, Tarana Burke, coined the phrase in 2006 to raise awareness of the pervasiveness of sexual abuse and assault in society. Burke co-founded an organization called Just Be Inc., where she focuses on improving the health and well-being of young women of color.
While it is wonderful that the issue of sexual abuse is now in the spotlight, Rye pointed out that it did not happen until celebrity women came forward. Women higher on the economic ladder are not at the same risk as poor women. Even though there are accounts of women in the entertainment industry being fired and blackballed for railing against the abuse, they are more likely to have the means to hire lawyers and are more likely to be able to maintain a reasonable standard of living. Women who are at the low end of the economic spectrum, disproportionately women of color, often don’t or can’t speak out because they are not able to afford the consequences. One woman interviewed for the segment, a chef, pointed out that with all of the inequities women have to navigate, it can lead to low self-esteem, and if you don’t feel good about who you are, you are more likely to tolerate the abuse or even think you deserve it. Sophia Nelson, a lawyer, author, and political commentator started the #UsToo hashtag in November in hopes of expanding the #MeToo conversation to include race.
The panelists also discussed pervasive and systemic racial bias in the justice system. Strossen offered that on college campuses, where black male students represent 3% of the population, they are disproportionately expelled for allegations of sexual abuse. In the National Registry of Exonerations’ new report, Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States, researchers looked at the 1,900 exonerations reported in the Registry between 1989 and October 2016. Among other findings, they reported that a black person serving time for sexual assault is 3.5 times more likely to be innocent than a white person serving time for the same crime.
The inequities across racial and class lines cannot be minimized or forgotten in our quest for eliminating the scourge of sexual assault on our society.
Let’s not forget that most women who face sexual abuse are not celebrities, do not have deep pockets to fight the abuse, and remain silent and invisible. How will we ensure they are included in the #metoo movement? Let’s also not forget the historic disparities in our criminal justice system and the stereotypes and biases about black and brown men that make them easier targets for false allegations.
As we explore this topic, we want to push the envelope. We want to ask the uncomfortable questions and create spaces for open dialogue. Join us on March 6th as I join Krystal Leaphart, Intersectional Racial Justice Advocate, in delving deeper into this topic for the first virtual learning lab in a series of three. The description and registration information can be found below.
Affirming and Unpacking the #MeToo Movement: Gender at the Intersection of Race and Class
March 6th, 2:00-3:30PM
The #MeToo Movement has been a powerful force in bringing dialogue about gender, harassment, and power to the forefront. The narratives and experiences shared by women of different backgrounds and within different industries serve as a timely reminder of the work that still needs to be done to foster an inclusive, authentic, and respectful workplace–and world.
Join us for the first virtual learning lab in a three-part series as we discuss the intersections of gender, race, and class within the context of this new movement. How do these intersections manifest in the workplace and in our communities? Who is most vulnerable? How can we respond meaningfully across these intersections?
Mary-Frances Winters will share her expertise from the D&I field alongside Krystal Leaphart, a leader and emerging champion for intersectional racial justice. Join us as we begin unpacking this powerful, transformational movement and moment.
