Kim Kardashian: A Case Study in Performative Activism
By: Kayla Pasacreta
According to the Wall Street Journal, reality star Kim Kardashian scored a Spotify deal for a criminal justice podcast. The podcast will explore Kardashian’s work with the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal organization that aims to exonerate people who have been wrongfully convicted. Spotify has not publicly commented on the deal yet, but Wall Street Journal reports the podcast will be distributed via Spotify’s Parcast network and center on the investigative work of co-producer Lori Rothschild Ansaldi. Spotify has also not revealed just how much the deal is for, but we have a feeling sis is going to be raking in coin.
In the past two years, Kardashian has expressed a passion for criminal justice reform and has successfully been able to see to the release of dozens of inmates, with the help of her legal team. While Kardashian’s use of her platform is admirable, we have to ask: what about all of the Black women who have been doing the work behind the scenes?
In May of last year, multiple media outlets reported that Kim Kardashian and her legal team helped achieve of the release 17 prisoners who had been serving long sentences for low-level crimes. While the headlines highlighted Kardashian’s activism, they failed to mention it was actually criminal justice reform advocates Brittany K. Barnett and her colleague Miangel Cody who had actually done the work - Kim merely funded the project.
This situation speaks to the trouble that can come with “celebrity activism”. While we certainly need more celebrities stepping up to use their platform and resources for good, we cannot allow their activism to overshadow the work that organizers have been on the ground doing for years.
Kardashian pictured with Trump, photo via AP
Additionally, celebrity activists like Kim Kardashian are easy for people like Donald Trump to use as props. Last June, Kardashian visited the White House to push for criminal justice reform. She’s had some success with Donald - she was able to influence him to grant clemency for Alice Marie Johnson - but she was used for the White House to tout their criminal justice reform bill that in actuality, made very little strides to reform the criminal justice system. To make it worse, Donald even used Alice Marie Johnson for his campaign’s Super Bowl ad.
Last July, Kim thanked Trump for his help with getting A$AP Rocky released from prison.
Why does it matter that Kim uses her platform - where she has 65.5 million followers - to thank Trump for his help with her work? For one, this tweet of thanks came the same week that Trump had attacked 4 minority Congresswomen. "Why don't they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done,” he tweeted. The bad press he had that week was nearly erased when he received positive press for helping with A$AP Rocky’s case, even though he was far from the only high-status person to call for justice for Rocky.
Even with this week’s police reform bill announced by the administration, the President has done very little to make any actual reform, but he lives for the performative activism that his friend Kim Kardashian is able to help him with. In reality, Trump’s support of Kim Kardashian’s work means nothing because he doesn’t practice tolerance or push for justice. Heck, the man was going to host a Juneteenth rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma - the site of the country’s largest racial massacre- and then took credit for “making Juneteenth famous”. We can’t give him the chance to advocate for reform while simultaneously stoking fears and racial divisions ramp us his base.
Let’s be clear: pardoning people here and there because your millionaire friend asked you to is not reform. Real reform leads to structural change, not just the releases of a handful of inmates who were lucky enough to get national or celebrity attention.
If Kim wants to continue to be seen as an influential figure in criminal justice reform, she’s got to do more to amplify Black voices and steer away from encouraging performance activism. Hopefully, Kardashian’s podcast will use the opportunity to highlight Black organizers who have invested several years into pushing for reform.
