"The Art of Becoming a Change Maker" with Tarana Burke

[Music] [Laughter] thank you and welcome back thank you for having me back hi what I think it was um a number of years ago I can't remember the exact year but me too was just starting to kind of find his legs it was either 2018 or 2019 yeah and me too was just trying to find his leg that was a long time ago that was a long I know because Co it's like the co was like five years time war and so um first thank you so much for all that you do oh thank you and uh I know you carry a lot and second I was wondering how you see that movement that when we last spoke was kind of just getting some some strength and where do you see it today is it in a good place is it in a hard place has there been some movement has there not been some movement how do you assess kind of where we're at the movement is always been hard um and I want to say this I think that people were introduced on the world stage to me in 2017 um this movement dropped into the into large visibility across the globe in 2017 but it has always been a movement yeah um because it is every time it gets thrust back into um mainstream media people say this is the woman that coined the phrase which is um a little frustrating in sometimes it's like I wrote a name on a rock one day and put it on a shelf but there's a lot of work behind that and it was never just coining a phrase it was building a movement and there a whole body of work and it's always been hard and it's always going to be hard because it's inherently a hard topic it's a hard thing um but I and the people who I work with and the my my colleagues and my um and um uh other you know people who I stand shoulder to shoulder with and people whose shoulders I stand on top of we believe that we can live in a world free of sexual violence yeah we believe that yeah with everything in us and you know inherently believing that means it's going to be hard I think that and and other thing is that movements I've been saying this for the last 24 hours just because of what's in the news cycle now so I think because of social media and um the way we consume media now people don't really understand movements movements are hard yeah there's not a movement that is existed in history exactly that has not been hard and they have disappointments they have ups and downs and they have big big big big moments and they have really low moments and so in 2017 we had a really big big moment yeah right me too as a movement dropped in the middle of an ongoing Survivor Justice movement yeah one that started way before me mhm way way way way way before me um and one that hopefully and prayerfully will continue way way way after me so it what looks like to people who just consume particular types of media as hard or as difficult or as low or as invisible even is not we working yeah we working hard and we're doing a lot and we're winning yeah um and I think not just in the Survivor Justice movement in the social justice movement it looks hard it looks difficult it looks um it it looks bleak in some some to some degree but we're winning yeah and that's actually why it looks so Bleak uhuh you know yeah and can you say I know there's some things that came out in the news we can we can talk about if we want to um but can you say do you feel like there's a misunderstanding of what it is and and how would you how would you want to clarify or name because people hear different phrases me too or something else they have their own ideas do you have a sense of uh what it is to you that may not the news might not cover in the same way what the movement is or what the what the movement is to you so for example when you're here before you said um like of course we want to end sexual violence towards all women and that there's particularly women of women of color who have it even more intense they have they have a much uh much less of a voice in our society and I'm curious like uh how it's getting portrayed in the in the media and and all the different things is that uh is that is most of it being traed accurately to your experience or there pieces is there pieces that you can help clarify sure I think one it's not a woman's movement and I should say that clearly women largely obviously are are um the people who bear the brunt of the vi of violence all kinds of violence but the movement to insexual violence is not a woman's movement and I think that one when you say that and yeah and I think that's one of the biggest misconceptions right that's one of the things that media gets wrong people get wrong I understand why because it's what we see um but it leaves out large swaps of people yeah it leaves out men obviously men's first role in this movement is as survivors we just complet because we spend so much time trying to um we create these divides right it's if men would just stop uh abusing women if men would just stop being violated all of this would end that's a lie yeah that's a lie all of us suffer under patriarchy all of us all of us have been socialized and raised under the thumb of patriarchy right most women when we deal with violence or abuse one of the first people we go to are other women yeah and that's the first places we hear some of the most dangerous and toxic messages are from other women yeah right we right yeah yeah that's the person the first person we hear why were you there what were you wearing how much did you drink we get those messages a lot of the times from other women women yeah yeah because we all were raised and socialized under patriarchy yeah so this notion that if men would just stop it would just end is wrong and dangerous yeah the other thing is men one in Four Women let me get the statistic right I think it's one in three or one in Four Women will will experience sexual violence in their life wow the other number is one in six boys and men we forget that number yeah so men's first role is as survivors in this movement yeah the other thing is everybody's not a man and everybody's not a woman right right right right so it can't be a woman's movement yeah yeah right it can't be yeah the future is not female the future is free yeah that's great so we that that misconception is really dangerous yeah um and and as long as the media keeps getting that right we we dig deeper into that divide and it makes it harder for us to do that do our work yeah um the other thing we get the misconceptions are these stories that we keep we keep telling when you talk about sexual violence particularly in North America United States Canada me we're not talking about indigenous folks it's as if they're they just don't exist yeah for all kinds of things but I'm I'm here to talk about sexual violence but is as if they don't they don't exist the number one Community affected by sexual violence in America in Canada is indigenous folks wow wow I didn't know that far in a way oh far in a way number two is black women okay but before you get to black women you have to talk about indigenous people yeah and we don't yeah we we are now oh we are right in this moment I can't listen I you cut me I bleed red black and green I'm as black as it gets yeah but but I'm a truth teller yeah right yeah you can't I I would never tell my story without telling their story because our stories are intertwined yeah yeah yeah yeah and so it's disingenuous it's dishonest the way we talk about sexual violence the the population of indigenous folks is shrinking every day m so statistically this is a statistic number I'm talking about it's not in in actual physical number yeah but statistically for how small their population is the and the other thing that's unique about indigenous folks is that they are the only population of people of color that have people from outside of their Community coming in and enacting this violence on them oh wow okay for everybody else it's more intracommunal okay okay so we get that wrong really really really wrong yeah thank you thank you there's so many different ways we could we could kind of take this and I know it's super important to name all of it you know one of the things that I I had I I've thought about is that there was this um there was this there has been this really strong movement towards uh becoming more conscious of these disparities and privilege and the way that that um Power is wielded in really really painful ways and some people were calling that like being more woke and now it feels like there's this whole backlash right where it's like all of a sudden people look at uh certain presidential candidates who don't who don't apologize for anything and who don't seem to give a about anything and they're like oh I'm which one Trump trump mainly Trump mainly just to name him thank you but but others and other Business Leaders it's not doesn't just exist in him and so I'm see I'm curious how you see that because it's almost now almost like there there's a there is like a proudness in not caring how your actions affect others and I'm wondering how that's Landing for you how you how you like decipher what that is all about listen my next book is called revolutionary Grace revolutionary Grace revolutionary Grace I shouldn't be talking about it don't nobody tell my my my because I'm not finished writing it but but the it's Landing really terribly for me I don't understand it's a naivity probably that that I struggle with because I probably should I do understand intellectually I understand in my heart I don't understand I understand evil I understand meanness I understand unkindness but in in my intellectually I so listen I'm an organizer been an organizer most of my life I understand strateg strategically how there's always a backlash right I understand that we spent almost a decade in a moment that was in in in a large moment of movement of forward movement right we we went from you know uh if we were to Market let's say Trayvon Martin Excuse me the onent of black lives matter we had huge strides in racial Justice um climate change training programs yeah you know we had we had really big visible stri in social justice that was I'll say I'll say I'll mark that if I put brackets on it about a decade right 2012 2013 around around that time and even a little F even a little a little earlier right because before the around the time of social social social media kind of um having a big influence um as a organizing tool and it allowed young people to become more involved and get more information quickly and it was a tool to really gather young people quickly gather people quickly um and get information faster yeah and it was fascinating to watch that happen but that fell in the middle of an ongoing plan that and if I'm using left right as a as a the the um explanation In This Moment the right has had a steady ongoing plan right we saw it in the tea party we saw it in Reaganomics we they give it different names every about 10 years but it's the same plan it's the same plan we know that yeah they just give it a different name they put a different face on it but they have been moving forward in the same plan and so what's different now I think is that when they saw this big burst happen I think they realized they had to double down that their power was being threatened their power was being threatened differently than than it has been in previous times because they were sort of just moving forward with their plan and and I think they realized they had to double down because information was moving quickly into yeah you know on our side what we have seen now is a level of H A this deep evilness yeah cuz before I I believed we had you know Republicans and Democrats and blue and red and this side and that side and you could be a moderate this this is something different this is not just ideological yeah right this is this is something different and so this book that I'm writing is about because there's also something happening on our side yeah right yeah if you even take their side off and take take their side and put it you know put them over here for a minute something also happening on our side we can't come together even for the greater Goods like we just need to move forward we need to like figure out the things that we do agree on yeah to move forward we can't even do that yeah so part of what part of what rev revolutionary Grace is about is I see a lot of people talk about Liberation ultimately in the social justice Movement we are fighting for Liberation yeah that's what I've been saying for years for 30 something years I've been talking about fighting for Liberation I no longer believe in a politic of Liberation that doesn't have a politic of Grace wow I I just I just wow I can't this is like my my litmus test yeah I can't fight with you I can't work with you I can't I cannot I no longer believe that and not just any kind of Grace m right because regular Grace to me is like we can all find a way to find Grace for each other yeah you know yeah whether you're a Christian or and most religions have some form of Grace embedded in them or if you're not religious right even if you're not religious you can find Grace right that's the beauty of Grace yeah um but revolutionary Grace to me is when is there's a there is a um there is a foundational principle that I have lived by since I was a teenager when I learned to be an organizer I learned this principle it was the people who were teaching me the first principle of nonviolence nonviolent organizing is I will not violate your dignity but I will not compromise mine wow I have lived by that since I was 14 years old mhm and the second part of that because this is leadership training is when I when I make a decision it will be to serve everybody even my enemies wow those are the two principles I have lived by wow that's a big one 35 years those are big ones yeah don't steal this it's gonna be in my book but this is the foundation of the book this this is what the book is about is is I will not violate your dignity but I will not compromise mine it puts you at an impact and it forces you to have to work from that place and when I make a decision it will be to serve everybody even my enemies that's what leadership is to me and is that what Grace is to you it is it's it's the foundation for Grace to me and it's the Catalyst that activates all my other values because it seems like non-race would be othering and separation and we have to get rid of destroy put away something and that Grace would be they somehow are still a part of us but they can't be in the role that they were in am I getting close to that but I'm going to tell you what makes it revolutionary because when you think about the people who are asked to give Grace all the time yeah yeah right yeah the people who are asked to give Grace all the time are the people who get it the least yeah true and that's what I'm examine it in this book yeah that's terrible when you think about black women black people women people of you think about the people who have the least revolutionary Grace is trying to figure out how do you give grace to the people who need it the most but get it the least yeah beautiful beautiful that's when we really can get to Liberation to me I don't think we can get to Liberation until we get not just a politic of Grace but a politic of revolutionary Grace yeah that's beautiful that's beautiful and how did that has that always been supp to you or was there a moment when you were kind of like wrestling with all the other activists you realize hold up we've lost something we we've lost love we've lost Grace we've lost like and there was a moment where that was like yeah it's an inner conflict too don't get me I'm not you know I don't walk on water it's a it's an inner conflict all the time because I want to be right yeah it's a natural right it's a natural instin I want to be right I want people to do it my way I want to I want to I want it to be my strategy I want you know yeah I have to be it's an it's a gut check though yeah this is why values matter yeah yeah they do and it's also why Community matters because I can do my own gut check and I'm GNA come out right anyway oh that feels right to me gut check yeah that's right those that that's Community matters because somebody else who has shared values has to gut check me and say you're wrong Tana yeah I checked your gut check and your gut is wrong yeah you know Community matters having other people around you who are like-minded and who are honest and who share those values matter yeah I have been pulled in many times by people who I trust who also believe in Liberation yeah who believe in grace who believe in love and who believe that love is a real value yeah not just we this this not a passive value yeah right and that's the other thing about revolutionary Grace it's not a passive value it's active and it has an anatomy yeah you know yeah we we throw around this this is more than a notion what we are doing what we are living through in this moment this is really I mean I know you know this I'm not we all living it right but this is it's so scary I can sit here and say we're winning cuz I really believe that yeah and I'm really scared yeah yeah both those things are true yeah I hold both of those things in my body every day yeah I do believe we're winning there's nothing that these folks can do that's going to stop what's coming yeah that's why they fighting so hard yeah yeah you you know otherwise they wouldn't be fighting right if they didn't work that's why they fighting so hard I when I come and I give talks I tell people listen when somebody when something is when folk this is a little morbid but just follow me but you know what happens when some when people are drowning is when they fight the hardest yeah yeah right when F when something when something is dying they fight the hardest so they knew 30 40 years ago that this was the America was going to look like this today yeah yeah and it's continuing to look more like what they did not want it to look like that's right yeah this country is going to be brown and wrapped in rainbows no matter what they do yeah it's this this the truth it's true it's true right yeah yeah and I I don't I don't understand why that's not beautiful to them but unfortunately yeah it ain't nothing you can do about it so what does grace look like like it like I I see it I see and I there's certain things I don't see right like I like to think I see everything privilege and all the pieces like to be honest like and they like oh there was this whole thing I didn't even notice right and so I'm sure that when we look at certain people and it's so clear with certain people where they're this like holding this power what does grace look like in relationship to those to that energy to others people who don't see it yeah who who Miss who seem to miss that and who feel like Liberation for them is this and hoarding and keeping this idea of what they think America is where white people tend to have more power than everybody else and make all the decisions like what does grace how How does Grace look like how do we have Grace how do we have Grace within that experience I think that that's where that that definition comes from okay I don't want to violate anybody's dignity as long as I I don't have to give up mine yeah that's the that's exactly why that Push Pull exists I don't have to violate your dignity but we have to figure out how we can coexist in a world yeah where your dignity is not violated but neither is mine yeah and the problem is they they I don't have they always want to live like this yeah yeah like everything is okay as long as we can be like this and I'm like sir I can't see I I can't you realize I can't see they're like oh you're okay no I'm not yeah you know and and I it's the same thing I try to when I try to explain to people about sexual violence yeah when and I'm I'm going to use gender a gendered example for a second but the problem that we had when you know when all the uh when me to went vir or whatever it was like when women got up to tell their stories yeah of of of trauma all folks could hear were men's life being ruined right right yeah you had these women getting up telling these stories that they had held in the pit of their stomach for 20 and 30 and 40 and 50 years sometimes but all they could hear were men's lives being ruined they could not hear a woman's life being saved wow that's very true it's true you have to alter that to be able I'm not going to violate your dignity I I'm going I will not violate your dignity but I'm not going to compromise mine yeah we all have the right to walk through this life with our dignity intact 100% yeah that's a human right yeah that's a basic human right yeah but that's what happens and if it makes me uncomfortable that's my problem it it most certainly is not M yeah is definitely not and the hardest part I mean men has a lot of challenges but one of the hard part of men have challenges on is allowing somebody to express their pain and feel that pain and empathize as you talk about so eloquently in your books empathize without needing to go into some excuse or some story or something around that listen m not to be all too too personal but my husband and I deal with this this this thing sometimes and I'm and he has these moments and I'm like this is discomfort baby he be he be we just had it this morning we were having I was coming in on a plane and we were having a conversation in the in the Uber and he was like he was like I don't want to talk about this I was like cuz you're uncomfortable he was like this ain't right I'm like it's it's dis listen say it with me you're just uncomfortable you're uncomfortable hates that word he was like this is this just not right we shouldn't be talking about this I'm like it's okay yeah it's just yeah and the the more somebody's raised without any discomfort the more discomfort is harder for them exact that's saying it's it's like I've never like I'm always taught that I should get everything I want and I'm not getting what I want there's a problem it's like no that's life yeah and when we finished I was like look at this you see how look at you it's over we were on FaceTime and we got through the conversation I was like baby look around it's over you're alive yeah look at you I was like look tuck you're alive it's over the discomfort happened yeah the discomfort happened you got through it you know like it's just it's like the chart they have in the doctor's office that little face is discomfort that's pain that's it's you can live through discomfort it feels like death for men yeah it feels like full on death and it depends on your the level of privilege you have it's the more privilege you have the more discomfort feels like somebody shot you and like it's okay it's okay it's just like I just pinched a little bit of your privilege like give me my privilege back I need that I'm like I promise you it's you're going to be okay you all that privilege you have left you might be better than okay you might actually be part of the human family yeah let me tell you something if you fly first class anybody try this try this if you get to fly or Comfort plus and step in front of a white man who thinks that you don't belong there wow oh my God their privilege they don't know what to do with it ma'am I don't think you belong here sir Your Privilege is intact you're fine maybe not though maybe maybe that maybe they sense that there is a new W they they are losing something that's what I'm saying they feel like they are Lo I'm like I am one person one body in front of you you going to get down that jet bridge and get into your seat and you're going to be just fine that little bit of discomfort you're feeling right now it'll be ease when they bring you that little Mimosa to your seat it's just but they they feel like they're losing it in and did you feel like that's some that's what we're seeing in our society today a lot of people who they're coming they're going to get my other Mimosa no I'm not there's one for you and there's one for me but it's just it is it's wild to watch it happen in real time I'm like what do you actually think is going to happen yeah it's in these states you see Georgia turn is is is turning purple yeah right it's little blue a little red and I'm like nothing's fundamentally different in Georgia yeah you know people is still segregated right people life goes on life goes on y'all live where you live we live where we I don't live in Georgia but the people the blacks live where they live the whites live where they live and the black people and the white people who lived comingled still coinkle yeah the people still work together it's just the idea is so painful yeah so why is it that my sense of self I don't know who I am unless I feel more power than somebody else right I don't know if if I don't feel more power than somebody else I I don't know who I am is that the is that what's happening or yeah but I think that's a line to everything difference and change thing the unknown is always scary to everybody yeah right and if you are a person who's been raised since childhood your identity is connected to this privilege and I don't mean this to be insulting to any white person in the audience but so many white people are raised that their worth and their identity is connected to their privilege yeah right this is the best of who you are is connected to this thing yeah and you deserve this and it's yeah and you deserve it your entitlement your and it's unfortunate it's really and this is I'm not saying this to be condescending in any way I actually do really from my heart mean this it's unfortunate that they are robbed of the privilege of finding connection and real true value in something other than how you exist and show up in your skin and your body right that's unfortunate that's very unfortunate it really is yeah and and that's that's the scary part for them it's like who am I yeah Tony Marson has this really beautiful quote who are you without your privilege who are you without your race yeah and and it's scary to have to figure that out at 40 50 60 years old now that you've been living all this time and somebody told you're at least you're better than them right at least you're poor but you're better than them right and you know in your heart of heart of hearts that it's not true yeah that's the other part they know it's not true yeah but you got to live in this lie encase in this lie your whole life while you watched us be excellent in all kinds of ways and not just us the other people people lie on Mexicans in this country and other and and and latinx folks y'all know these folks are excellent just is just as well yeah yeah yeah that's the most rid it's the most people saying that latinx folks are lazy is the most ridiculous I'm just like how who does most of the work how not even it's it's this and that's the other thing we start talking about latinx folks are lazy and then we po point to housework and all this other stuff there's all these other accomplishments yeah that latinx folks have besides cleaning houses and cleaning I'm not even talking about that yeah like that's not even the example okay they come here here and build and they come here they are an example of collective work and responsibility yeah and ways that we don't ever acknowledge that's true I'm not talking about cleaning houses and cleaning toilets and selling I'm not talking about that I'm talking about the folks that I know yeah and I grew up in New York yeah so we didn't grow up with um folks from the Mexican Community these a lot of people from Puerto Rico and Honduras stuff like that these people take care of their family so they come here they buy or they build and they bring their families and they buy and they build they have been an example of that for Generations regardless of what other kind of work they do yeah quietly minding their business yeah and they got a stigma out of nowhere yeah they're like how we get in there yeah we came here and did what y'all told us to do right we came here and did what everybody we came y'all said this is the American dream we came here we did what you said we to do and all of a sudden we a problem yeah you know what I'm saying yeah because white folks see it you know these people are excellent yeah but if you're upset and you feel less than you have to find some you have to find it can't be you and it can't be the system so you have to find somebody that is the problem and it's like well let's take the immigrants or let's take the whatever people exactly and there's a there is a it's not GNA there's no way for it to continue but it also sucks that it has to exist every day that it exists yeah well we going to do something about it okay um so also I want to say one other thing please the other thing I want to say is I'm glad we just brought up that last example because I also think one of the problem other problems we do is centering white folks as the in the issue right the conversation is always white people do this and they have the privilege and we need to there is a whole other word like we said we it's brown and wrapped in rainbows BL blah there's another way we have to if we're going to do something about it we have to desent CER white people as the center yeah of the issue we know what the problem is we know where the privilege lies excuse me but there's a whole bunch of other people here and there's a way that we need to decenter thinking about the ways they move and the ways they do this and that and and go about figuring out how we live without them at the center yeah yeah we were I was uh van Jones was here when we doing our AI event one of the things he brought up which I thought was really interesting it's like the black community has so much power if we say something is cool it's cool in South in in South Korea it's cool in North Korea it's kilo in Japan like like it's interesting to look at like influence and power but it's like it's so expansive and if can we can we jump into can we expand ourselves into a world where we take pride in whatever it come whoever it comes through yeah and I don't know how we do that but but because I do feel like the the tendency is to be like are we doing better are they doing better which one's winning which one's losing versus like oh like this could be something that we also celebrate the fact that like we all have our own capacities we all bring in our own talents exactly I would love to see and so we titled this the art of a changemaker that's what I had to look I was like I hope we did that but I did I did that but you don't have to tell people how to be a change maker but I wanted them to hear your voice because I feel like part of what your voice is about it's not about you that your voice is to kind of talk us through how you navigate what is a revolutionary graceful being who's connected to themselves and connected to this world and acting at of respect to that to what they're seeing and what they're feeling what they're sensing so I don't know if you have any uh thoughts on that as we as we get close to closer to an end but I feel like that's that's what I get from you so I don't know if that is how you see yourself well I mean I don't know if I caught everything you said I was trying I was trying that that I think that there's people who are in the world who want to be of Greater service yes they want to be more connected they go to their work they do their kids and it's fine but they also feel like I want to contribute to some World Vision that I want to see happen I don't just want to spend two hours on Tik Tok or social media like I would actually like to feel like I'm a part of a change that I want to see in the world and um I think you've done incredible already what you've said is amazing uh but but for you maybe uh what is it to be what is it to be a true change maker and not just somebody who's like kind of like hanging out in the status quo well I think one being intentional about coming to a space like this is a start right I think these kind of spaces that are really carefully curated that think about how you show up in the world I think these are the you know I I wish I knew something like this existed before I met you you know um I think this is one of the ways but I also think we've gotten really and I when I talk to college students I say this a lot we've gotten really really um what's the word is it dogmatic maybe about what it means to make change what it means to be an activist all of that and I think that it is it I think we need to loosen that a little bit beautiful right in this particularly in this moment in the world where there is so much and I'm going to use the word evil because it just really feels evil where there's so much sort of evil and meanness and maybe that feels not like like the strong enough word but people really are just mean yeah they are just cruel and mean for no reason we are cruel and mean to each other for no reason I think one of the Arts of being a change maker is is about being intentional about how you show up values really do matter yeah they do it it matters and and not just sort of naming them but like thinking about how they how you live them it's not nobody's going to be perfect I think that's one of the things I'm thinking through about writing in the book right I I named these like seven sort of tenants of revolutionary Grace but it's because I think of like you know love is a value and this these different kind of values but like I don't always they're not always active for me at every moment yeah for me I think about Grace a lot and so it's the one I pull on all the time and so it activates my other values yeah that's you know what I mean I need that's toate my other values for me so when I want to be snarky and I'm going tell you a quick story I was in a interview one time with um what's this lady name I got a I have an excuse sh I'm old I can't think of people's name all the time what media company can we help you out it was like Katie cork I think don't tell her I couldn't take her name but um no no no I can't think a very well-known media personality um it's going to come to me in a second but she said she started off the interview by saying um you are known as one of the kindest she said she said she said you're known one of as one of the kindest um movement leaders out there something like that she said and I was like me not that I'm unkind but it was just an interesting I yeah you know thing to hear as a descriptor and I said really and she was like yeah well you know you don't like get into these fights on Twitter and internet and you don't like talk badly about people and I was like why would I do that I was like do you know how busy I am I just cannot imagine I just it's just not it's such a not useful use of my time I just couldn't imagine like and then I started thinking I was like okay because I was on TV I didn't want to like talk about other people you know other leaders cuz then I want to be like who does that like you know there are believe it or not there are people no there are and and then I started thinking I was like oh okay I do I do kind of remember hearing about this person or that person so I knew kind of what she was talking about but then I I was like well that doesn't serve me of my work and the purpose of my work but my point is I do have moments where I want to do that I do have moments where I'm very angry people say horrible things about me on the internet all the time and I want to react I'm like I'm from the Bronx you can't you can't talk about me like that you wouldn't say it to my face like are you serious you know but there is a there is a thing that I keep in my mind that activates the value right that says no Toran you can't do that no toron you can't right I have to deep find that thing that activated so like being a change maker is important to me yeah you are a change maker to somebody in your life your children your family your co-workers your whoever your whoever there has to be a way that you you're thoughtful about how you show up who your sphere of influence is and how what you represent to them and I think it's it's this intentionality is everything that's what I would say you know I'm I'm just I spend a lot of time thinking about intentionality yeah and I slip up yeah quite a bit yeah and I being in public y'all don't see it and sometimes you will and when you do see it be like oh it must have been a big slip up they must have really pissed her off because I trust me I work really hard but CU I'm you know I'm a human being and it'll happen but but that is I think that is the thing it's and and I'm also in terms of real the actual work I'm doing not just in my day-to-day life really being strategic I'm thinking 30 years ahead yeah yeah you know I'm thinking about Legacy is important to me as well yeah I know that I I do believe I think every day about what this world would look like yeah without sexual violence Bloomberg this I know we got to wrap up I see the sign but I this is really true Mike Bloomberg the former May of New York billionaire 25 years ago decided he we should have a smoke free a tobacc free America this a true story and in the last 25 years he has committed 20 plus billion dollars towards that cause wow right I want y'all to think about this because I don't know I can't see you so I don't know your ages but I can tell people are probably a little bit older than 18 I had to pick a low number not to but I'm sure many of you remember when we used to have cigarettes smoking on planes yeah yeah yeah and in bar do they smoke in bars in San Francisco cuz New York they don't yeah probably not no smoking in bars here right you can drink in bars still do y'all do smoothies in bars like yeah yeah green but anyway there was a time in this country we remember you could smoke on a plane you could smoke in bar you know all these different places 30 years ago 40 that was the case you saw lots of cigarette smoking in TV shows there was cigarette ad remember the cool ads you was like yeah you know it was like Virginia Slims and the mar man doctors were smoking yeah yeah right we had a world with cigarettes were everywhere they were cigarette machines in schools and you know in doctor's offices anyway the reason why we have a very different America right now in relation to cigarettes is because Mike Bloomberg got his other billionaire friends and they put 20 billion plus dollars into changing that wow they decided that they made that decision yeah and yes people still smoke cigarettes obviously but I will tell you in the last 25 years there have been multiple interventions yeah medical interventions research interventions remember when the big reports came out saying secondhand smoke will kill you blah blah blah blah blah there have been narrative interventions they made sure that uh there was the the cigarette ads came out of all the things right no more cigarette smoking on television no more cigarette smoking and there were legal interventions big tobacco got sued all over the place there were Grassroots intervention remember the truth ads that came out yeah we got the ladies on te you know these you all know what I'm talking about if you think about it you think about all the different interventions we've seen in the last three decades to change the way we think right now I have a 26 year old child somebody lights up a cigarette they're like G who's smoking yeah so kids Vape now of course this tobacco industry will find some other thing my point to you is that when somebody decided to wrap their arms around the whole thing and say we can end this in 25 years we think differently about tobacco yeah we think differently about tobacco we can do the same thing around sexual violence that's right right thank you'all T bur everybody thank you [Applause]

Channel: Wisdom 2.0 with Soren Gordhamer

Views: 309

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Id: rCcCt2b7iZY

Length: 44min 0sec (2640 seconds)

Published: Mon May 06 2024