It is a new day for Kim Kardashian. The multi-millionaire model and businesswoman whose family built an empire through her rise to fame, is positioning herself to become a very powerful defense attorney, with a focus and interest in criminal justice reform and more specifically, prisoners re-entry into society.
However, she is still in law school.
Kardashian is shadowing attorney’s from Cut 50, a sort of bipartisan initiative to address prison reform, an organization that Van Jones is also apart of.
Kardashian spoke today at a “second-chance hiring event at the White House, attended by President Donald Trump and other high-ranking officials and organizations.
Kardashian spoke about her journey of currently attending law school, visiting prisons and sitting down with those who had life sentences.
“My journey of criminal justice reform began a year ago when I came to see the president after speaking to Ivanka and Jared, who really fought for me to be here. I pled the case of Alice Johnson who the president granted clemency to.
After that I spent so much time going to different prisons because I really had no connection to anybody on the inside. I’m at the place in my life where I want to make a difference and I just wanted to do the right thing but I just didn’t know how,” Kardashian said at the second chance hiring event.
What she learned was that it is extremely difficult for those who are released from prison to find employment and housing.
Known as prison recidivism, Kardashian has proven to be working within the world of law and politics, to begin to provide the resources necessary to ensure those released from prison do not become repeat offenders due to their lack of access to employment.
One small token of the work she is currently working on, is partnering with ride-share programs to provide gift cards to prisoners recently released so they are able to make it to job interviews and see their family members.
Kudos to Kim Kardashian for using her wealth, popularity and privilege for those who have been dealt a bad hand due to white supremacy and society. Many people may be wondering WHY though.
Why all of a sudden, why prison and how has she made such strides in something she seemingly gained interest in only a few years ago?
Maybe, the four half-black kids by a Black man who has been ridiculed and ostracized for leaving his community to be accepted into high socialite society, has opened her mind into what Blackness actually means in American society and even abroad.
Maybe, Kim is apart of Trump’s 2020 campaign and Trump is looking to be in support of Kim’s efforts to reverse decades of mass incarceration, makes Trump look less racist than he actually is.
I would like to believe it is the first one. Maybe it is a mixture of both. The fact remains however, that Kim Kardashian is positioning herself as a powerful ally to marginalized communities. I just hope she is a true ally and is not moving with a white savior complex.
