Launched the me too hashtag more than a decade ago. Then, thousands of people marched for puerto rico in washington, d. C. This past weekend. Well look at the lack of progress in puerto rico, where Hurricane Maria devastated the island two months ago. This slow pace, getting relief to people. People . T we get to its s unthinkable. E. Amy we speaeak with san juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz. Then, from Hurricane Maria in puerto rico to Hurricane Harvey in texas, we go to dr. Robert bullard, the father of the Environmental Justice movement. What is environmental racism . All that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman on this democracy now special. Over the last two months, the political, media and entertainment worlds have been rocked as thousands of women and some men have come forward to share their stories of Sexual Harassment and abuse. The catalyst was the historic disgracing of hollywood mogul harvey weinsnstein, who is being criminally investigated after dozens of women came forward to accuse weinstein of rape, assault and Sexual Harassment. Following the investigations by the New York Times and the new yorker, women across the country and the world are now coming forward with their own stories, involving many different men, under the hashtag me too. Well, we want to go back to the beginning of this historic moment. In the days after the Harvey Weinstein revelations, we interviewed tarana burke, an acactivist and Sexual Assault survivor who started the hashtag me too a decade ago. Shes now a Program Director at girls for gender equity. We also spoke with Soraya Chemaly, a journalist who covers the intersection of gender and politics, and alicia garza, cofounder of black lives matter. Democracy nows juan gononzalez and i began by asking tarana burke about how she started the me too hashtag ten years ago. I have been working with young people for more than 25 years. And i worked in the south in 2007. And as a survivor of Sexual Violence myself, as a person who was struggling trying to figure out what healing looked like for me, i also saw young people, and particularly young women of color, in the community i worked with, struggling with the same issues and trying to find a succinct way to show empathy. Right . We use a term called empowerment through empathy. And me too is so powerful, because somebody had said it to me, right . And it changed the trajectory of my healing process once i heard that. And so, because the Rape Crisis Centers in the community i was working didnt go out to the schools, they didnt do outreach, and im an organizer by training, it made sense to me that you have to bring you know, you have to bring it to people. People are not going to seek it out. And so, me too was about reaching the places that other peoplele wouldnt go, bringing messages and words and encouragement to survivors of Sexual Violence where other people wouldnt be talking about it. Juan gonzalez and your response now that weve had its almost a succession of one big name after another being accused of Sexual Assault bill cosby, roger aiailes, bill oreilly, donald trump and now Harvey Weinstein . Tarana burkeke r. Kelly, yeah. No, its not a surprise, right . And i think that you know, i say all the time, im never surprised at these allegations. For every r. Kelly or bill cosby or Harvey Weinstein, theres, you know, the owner of the grocery store, the coach, the teacher, the neighbor, who are doing the same things. But we dont Pay Attention until its a big name. And we dont Pay Attention til its a big celebrity. But this work is ongoing, because this is pervasive. Amy goodman i wanted to bring Soraya Chemaly into this conversation, of the Womens Media Center speech projoject. Talk about this latest these revelations, these rolling revelations, against Harvey Weinstein, because of the New York Times expose, followed by the new yorker expose. The new yorker expose is only there because the author went to nbc, ronan farrow, and he worked on it with them for months, and then they killed it, which is leading to, to say the least, enormous questions within nbc what was their connections too weinstein . Putting a lot of pressure on the president of nbc. Talk about this, when this will even be reported, and the level of the women who have to make the charges for this to get this kind of attention, these alist stars. Soraya chemaly i think this is a very good example of the way overlapping systems of fraternity work to silence stories like these. We know that it takes a tremendous outpouring of, really, trauma from women, working together in a Campaign Like me too, to make people sit up and Pay Attention. But what were really talking about is making people believe what women are talking about, because we have a very deepseated distrust of what women say. And when women say it, its very easy to dismiss and trivialize. And part of that process of stereotypes and myth making comes directly from media. And media frames questions, decides which questions to ask, how to report, what language to use, and also whose Voice Matters and whose experience matters. So, in an instance like this, we see very clearly that a person with extreme power and status in one industry was probably leveraging that power and status across industries, able to tap people possibly in the criminal justice system, people in the media system. And again, this, i think, is really common. Its not rare. Its just that were seeing it at a very high level. Juan gonzalez and could you talk about this in the context of a a president , in a p presidy which itself, donald trump, has been repeatedly accused of Sexual Harassment . Soraya chemaly so, i think that what was most interesting in the wake of the trump tape that was released a year ago was the difference in responses between men and women to what happened. And we saw a huge gap in understanding and empathy, honestly, during the debate that followed immediately after that tape was released. The tape was released, and millions of women were traumatized and shared stories with the notok hashtag, very much like they did now. But when the debatee happened, n the immediate wake of that, there was a largescale analysis done by facebook of what people were talking about, what was important to them, and it involved looking at millions of comments and posts from around the world, but especially, i believe, in the United States. And it showed that, for women, what trump was saying and what it represented was a priority. It was either number one or two on the list of top five. But, for men, it didnt make the list at all. And i think thats important, because our Media Systems and our Legal Systems and our political systems are still overwhelmingly dominated by men, overwhelmingly white men. So were talking about 80 80 plus in almost all of those arenas, certainly of senior management. And that experiential difference, which is transformative in terms of producing knowledge, like really understanding whats going on, is missing in these institutions. And so it takes this immense amount of energy to just try and get institutions to recognize the harm thats being done by dismissing and trivializing experiences of Sexual Harassment. Sexual harassment, if you even think about the term, is a term that reflects the perspective of harassers. Women who are being harassed, men who are being harassed, this isnt a sexual experience for them. Its an experience of fear and threat and violence. Its very intimidating. Theres always retaliation involved. So, even the perspective of the framing of the language reflects the problems that we face. Amy goodman i want to bring alicia garza into the conversation, cofounder of black lives matter, special projects director for National Domestic workers alliance, speaeaking to us from los angel. Your response that every about everything that has just been unfolding, now going from the charges, the allegations against Harvey Weinstein to, you know, both Scotland Yard and the new York Police Department investigating him criminally, and then the massive response to taranas me too movement, that started really 10 years ago but now picking up steam like weve never seen before . Alicia garza well, i first have to just say a deep thank you to tarana for creating this space for survivors like myself. Without that space, i wouldnt be a able to tell my story, and thousands and thousands of other people that i know would not be able to tell their stories. And you and i share someone in common, who you are a mentor to, and when she reached out to me yesterday and said, you know, my mentor tarana started this, and i wawant to make sure that black womens work is not erased, i had to i had to agree. My thoughts about this are that exactly what tarana said earlier, that this kind of violence is as american as apple pie. I am both heartbroken by all of the stories that i havave seen being shared theres morere ststories being shared every da. And lots of people that i know, that im in community with, and people that i donnt know, are asking themselves, what do we do about this epidemic off violence viviolence against womemen, violence against women color, violencnce against black women, clear people, trans people, and even, what do we do about violence against men . Right . Cis men, trans men. This kind of patriarchal violence really functions off of shame and silence. And its not lost onon me that evevery single p person who told their story about t Harvey Weinstein talked about how they were silenced, how they were encouraged not to speak up, how they were embarrassed or ashamed to speak up. Anand so the power o of this movement of me too, this s pr of empathy, this power of connection, is really aboutt empowering peoeople to be survivors, to be resilient, and also to make really visible that Sexual Violence is not about peoples individual actions, that this is a systemic problem that then requires different types of responses to deal with how systemic this problem actually is. Juan gonzalez id like to ask tarana, as the founder of this movement, where do you think it needs to go, from here on . Tarana bururke so, the movevem, the wowork that im doing and ts movementnt is really abobout survivors talking to survivors, right . Me too is about letting using the power of empathy to stomp out shame. And so, we need to keep talking about it, right . It doesnt need to be i mean, i appreciate the hashtag, and i appreciate the hashtag elevating the conversation, but its not a hashtag, right . Its not a moment. This is a movement. The reason why people didnt know my name is because people dont think about this unless there is Something Big happening. So what needs to happen is that we need to stop just, you know, popping up when somebody famous does something. And we need to really look at the numbers, look at the people, look at the survivors and think strategically. I think like an organizer. This is an epidemic, pandemic even, right . If you applied the numbers around Sexual Violence to any communicable disease, the World Health Organization would shut it down. There would be all kind of, you know, experiment and research around it. Amy goodman do you think a vaccine could be developed against it . Tarana burke oh, god, imagine, right . If we could stomp it out with just get your polio vaccine, and stop Sexual Violence. But in actuality, it is that pervasive. And so, we need to stop thinking about it in spurts, and think about it as something that we need to constantly work on. Amy thats tarana burke, who started the me too movement 10 years ago, Soraya Chemaly , independent journalist covering the interesection of gender and politics, and alicia garza, cofounder of black lives matter. To see all of our coverage about metoo and this historic outpouring of stories about Sexual Harassment and assault, go to democracynow. Org. This is democracy now. We will be back in a minute. Ive been a lonely girl, ive been a lonely girl, but im ready for the world, oh, im ready for the world re,ve been a heart for high e,ve been a heart for hir and my love is on the funeral pyre, my love is on the funeral pyre when will you, when will . Ou help me out you cant even pick me out of the crowd. O h oh, oh, oh. Amy the body electric by Alynda Segarra of hurray for the riff raff singining here in our democracy now studio. To see our full interview and her full performance go to democracynow. Org. Democracy now the war , and peace rereport. Im amy goodman on this democracy now special. Last sunday, thousands of people rallied on the National Mall in washington, d. C. , calling for justice for puerto rico two months after Hurricane Maria made landfall. The protesters called on fema to act quickly to restore services and for the the cancellation of where to ricos debt. Ricos debt. They also demanded congress permanently waive shipping restrictions under the jones act. Half of puerto rico remains without power and huhundreds of ththousands of residents stillll have no access to clean drinking wateter. This comes as the head of the puerto rico public Power Company, prepa, resigned, after facing widespread outrage and controversy for signing a 300 Million Contract with the tiny montanabased company whitefish, named after the hometown of interior secretary ryan zinke. Last month, under enormous pressure, puerto ricos governor, ricardo rosello, instructed puerto ricos Power Company to cancel l the controversial contract with whitefish energy. Well, we were in puerto rico a month ago, and just a few days just as the cancellation of the contract was being announced, but a few days before, we went to the Roberto Clemente coliseum, where the san juan mayor, Carmen Yulin Cruz, and her vice mayor, rafael jaume, had just gotten their hands on the contracts and were analyzing the details yes, the 300 million deal with whitefish and another 200 Million Contract between the Power Company and cobra, which is an oklahomabased company. Amy goodman so you just got a hold of the both the efish contract both of them this morning. Contract,0 million 200 million with cobra, an oklahomabased company, and this is femas statement. Whitefish wasn on made exclusively by puerto rico. Fema was not involved in the selection. Questions regarding g the awardg of this contract should redirected to prep a. Femaanguage that states pushed the contract is inaccurate. Strong words. I will tell you this. Amy this is a part of it. This is article 59. In the whitefish contract. It says, in the event shall amy goodman in no event. Vice mayor rafael jaume in no event shall prepa, the commonwealth of puerto rico, the fema administrator, the comptroller general of the United States or any other authorized representativives hae the right to audit or review the cost and profit elements of the labor rates specified herein. That is you can read about it yourself. Thats it. Theres no other thing that thats black and white. Amy goodman and t this . Vice mayayor rafael jaume and this one sayays this is artie 68, penalties, fines and disallowed costs. Amy goodman disallowed costs. Vice mayor rafael jaume disallowed costs. By executing this contract, prepa hereby represents and warrants thahat fema has reviewd and approved of this contract and confirmed that the contract is an acceptable form to qualify for funding from fema and other u. S. Government agencies. Totally the opposite in contrast to what fema is saying. Amy goodman of what fema is saying. Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz you know what that means . That means that, right there, that contract is null and void. Vice mayor rafael jaume yes. Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz it contradicts the laws of the United States of america, and it should be voided right now by the puerto rican government. And if the pueuerto ricacan government does not have the nerve to do what they have to do in order to do things right, then the u. S. Government should do it, because what this means is that we will not get reimbursed for a 300 Million Contract awarded to a twoemployee company that did not have the experertise nor business getting into this business. Amy goodman fema says prepa wholly approved this. Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz yes. Vice mayor rafael jaume yes. Amy goodman prepa, of course, is the puerto rico electric po