Tarana Burke

People love that.

It's so funny.

And the funny thing about it is how many people have told me their own versions of it.

So when I was a kid, Catholic, I used to, you know, in Catholic school, you go to confession.

And so I was so, I was being, I was going through molestation from nine to 12 years old.

I was so traumatized by what was happening and I was so deeply shamed by what was happening that I felt like, one, I felt complicit in my own abuse.

So I didn't understand why.

that what was happening to me wasn't my fault at all.

I didn't get that understanding until years later.

So when I would go to confess, I wanted to confess what I was doing wrong, but it felt like it was so bad that I couldn't tell God.

So I would make up a cover sin to confess in confession so that I could get

Something that I felt was not equally bad, but bad enough to get enough, you know, back from the priest to like pray for.

So I wouldn't have to tell.

So I would go in and be like, I said all of these curse words.

I didn't do my homework.

Which was weird because you're lying, right?

You're lying to the priest.

But you'd make a good lawyer.

But I felt like those sins, because I didn't actually do them.

It wasn't so bad.