Kim Kardashian Is Actually A Literal Angel: Here's All The Amazing Things She's Done For Other Humans
Kim Kardashian gets a really bad rap with some people, and the thing is, it's largely unfounded.
People love to hate on her because she's rich, because of Keeping Up With The Kardashians, because she's stereotypically attractive; they have a picture of her painted in their heads that has been fully formulated by tabloid and media attention - which she usually only gets when something scandalous happens.
Kim K may have been "just a reality star" in the first decade of this century, but that description has been untrue for a while now. Since 2015, the star has been making major efforts to better not only her own life, but the lives of disadvantaged people all over the world.
Here's a list of all of the cool, kind, amazing things Kim Kardashian has done (that we know about).
1. She speaks out about the Armenian Genocide
An issue that went unrecognized by the American government - and many others - for decades, the Armenian Genocide refers to the period of time around World War I that saw the Ottoman Empire slaughter millions of Armenian Christians living in Anatolia, sometimes called the "first genocide of the 20th century. The Turkish government still does not recognize that this was a genocide, insisting that the deportation of the Armenian citizens was legitimate and did not constitute a genocide.
Kardashian, who is Armenian in ancestry herself, has been vocal about this issue since at least 2015, when she traveled to the Aremenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan with sister Khloe, daughter North, and then-husband Kanye West.
In 2016, she penned an article on her website (which is unfortunately no longer available) calling out the Wall Street Journal for running an ad by FactCheckArmenia denying that the Armenian genocide happened. She also had private conversations with Donald Trump about it during his presidency, and wrote a heartfelt letter thanking President Joe Biden when he finally did officially recognize the genocide for what it was - the first American President ever to do so.
It wasn't all thank yous, either - the billionaire knows how to put her money where her mouth is, donating $1 million to the Armenia Fund, a humanitarian group supporting development in Armenia. She's also vocally condemned the war between Artsakh and Azerbaijan regarding the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, siding with the Artsakh people, and urging her followers to donate to the cause.
2. She's been instrumental in recent prison reform efforts
Kim Kardashian has actually played a major political role in getting non-violent drug offenders out of outsized prison sentences. In 2018, she helped free two such offenders, Chris Young and Alice Marie Johnson, convincing Trump to give them presidental pardons.
That's not the only place that her influence with Trump mattered, or even the biggest: White House insiders have said that without her influence, they never would have passed the First Step Act, which enacted major reforms in the American Criminal Justice System.
That was 2018; in 2019, Kardashian worked with attorneys Brittany K. Barnett and MiAngel Cody to fund (largely by herself) the 90 Days To Freedom campaign, which helped to free 17 non-violent drug offenders under the provisions set out by the First Step Act. Barnett later said about her:
"Kim linked arms with us to support us when foundations turned us down. We and our clients and their families have a lot of love for her and are deeply grateful for her."
3. She's vocal about gun violence
It's no secret that America has a problem with guns. In 2017, Kardashian tweeted out a table of statistics that illustrated this issue in sharp relief, throwing stereotypical impressions into question: That table, originally published by Huffington Post, showed that, while only 16 people a year are killed by terrorism (any kind, including far-right extremists), nearly 12,000 more are killed by a gunshot from a fellow American (including, horrifically, "armed toddlers").
The statistic went viral because of her tweet, making for more meaningful conversation surrounding the subject.
The table was later awarded the honor of International Statistic of the Year by the World Economic Forum.
4. She donated an unknown amount of money to help people during the height of the pandemic
We don't know the extent of how much she's helped, but reports seem to suggest that there are many more examples than this:
During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Kardashian donated $3,000 to the GoFundMe page of a mother of four who was facing eviction after her husband fell ill and died. After her name appeared on the donations list and reporters tried to reach out to her for comment, a source shared with Page Six that Kardashian had meant to donate anonymously, without putting her name on it - meaning she probably did this quite a bit without anyone knowing.
In addition, in 2020, SKIMS, her loungewear and shapewear business, donated $1 million to affected families, in order to better help mothers and children in need, and she herself pledged in December to donate $500 to 1,000 lucky people, in order to simply "spread the love" at Christmastime.
5. She helped a group of women escape Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover
After the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan that occurred shortly after the departure of U.S. troops from the area, many people, especially young women, tried to flee the country as quickly as possible.
One such group was the 30 members of the girls' Youth Development soccer team, and their families, who tried to escape to Britain but were trapped in Pakistan. Things were especially dangerous for them, as the Taliban directly opposes women in sports, and their past activism on the matter made them major targets for the regime. Some had already been beaten, had their homes burnt down, or had family members "taken."
Kardashian chartered an entire plane and got 130 people, including the girls and their families, to safety in the UK.
6. She's studying to be a lawyer (and not giving up)
Kardashian has been very public about her journey to become a lawyer, in the hopes of furthering the activism work that she's already begun - a law degree would help her gain more ability to directly influence these matters by means other than raising awareness or providing funds.
Interestingly, the star chose to forego traditional law school, instead opting to "read law" in order to study for the "baby bar" - the first part of the Bar exam.
She explained her reasoning for this decision in a Vogue interview a few years ago, saying it all started when she was in those talks about freeing those first two oversentenced drug offenders.
"I'm sitting in the Roosevelt Room with, like, a judge who had sentenced criminals and a lot of really powerful people and I just sat there, like, Oh, shit. I need to know more.
"I would say what I had to say, about the human side and why this is so unfair. But I had attorneys with me who could back that up with all the facts of the case. It's never one person who gets things done; it's always a collective of people, and I've always known my role, but I just felt like I wanted to be able to fight for people who have paid their dues to society.
"I just felt like the system could be so different, and I wanted to fight to fix it, and if I knew more, I could do more."
Kardashian openly admitted to failing the baby bar - the test administered as a checkpoint for those studying law through an apprenticeship or unaccredited law school - the first two times, and about continuing to work hard to pass - and she finally did, in December, meaning that she is on the right track with her studies and will be ready to take the full Bar and become a lawyer in a few more years.
We're looking forward to hearing about Kim Kardashian doing good things for others for many years to come - and hopefully, eventually, everyone else will stop seeing her as the party girl who used to be Paris Hilton's stylist, and start seeing her for the Elle Woods-type angel that she truly is. Kim K is on her way up, even still, and we're blessed to be here to witness it.
