Popular reality star Kim Kardashian has been recognized for her work as a prison reform advocate.
She was recently honoured in Venice at Diane von Furstenberg’s DVF Awards for speaking out about the justice system repeatedly.
At a roundtable with journalists before receiving her award, Kardashian aired her thoughts on the importance of protecting the people who helped to build the U.S.
Kardashian advocated for the release of Erik and Lyle Menendez, who are both serving life sentences after being convicted of murdering their parents in 1989, admitting that, despite knowing the final decision lies in the hands of the governor, she’ll try her best to fight for the rights of prisoners she believes in.
“In the news you hear, ‘Oh, it’s about people who have committed these crimes and they’re trying to help out our country.’ But then you hear about all of the people who have worked so hard to build our country, and so many people that are such a part of our country getting affected. People I know. People my friends know.
You want to believe that there’s a powerful message in protection, but then you see that it’s not really happening like that. It’s really tough, but I think that we have to do what we can to protect the people that have really supported and built our country.
[The Menendez brothers] are in a state prison so the governor is really in charge of that decision, but I would go to any administration and any White House to fight for the rights of people I believe in,” she said.
Chris Young, a man Kim helped free from a life sentence in prison, appreciated her for caring about helping prisoners even if she does not have to.
He concluded by hailing Kardashian for her compassion, stressing that she is one more reason for the world to respect women.
“The late, great Tupac said: ‘We all came from a woman, got our name from a woman, got our game from a woman.’ We need to respect our women, and especially someone like Kim Kardashian. She has all the success in the world — she did not have to make the decision to help people in prison. So that shows compassion. Compassion is different from empathy, because compassion has action,” he added.
