Description
As a Racial Justice Consultant, I help organizations furnish innovative strategies to engage in legal and policy work in commitment to racial justice. I conduct research on and analysis of relevant case law, legislation, and political and sociocultural movements; I author memorandums and long-form reports, filled with substantive and administrative recommendations; and I facilitate existing, and pilot new, programs centered on fostering racial equity. For me, racial justice work takes many forms, which include promoting anti-carceral legal reform, exposing systems and structures that produce misogynoir, and challenging the ways white supremacy culture appears in daily life. I also think of creative, out-of-the-box ways of producing and disseminating public education content and rendering that material into digestible and accessible information. The power of narrative is also important in my work, and I stress centering community stories and realities. I frequently facilitate dialogue within community to foster an environment where diverging ideas can be shared and, ideally, kneaded into cohesive community philosophies. And as someone who believes in tapping into the wisdom and resources that communities already have, I also often forge collaborations between groups that can mutually benefit each other towards achieving an equitable future. I also learn from my experiences as a Black woman, and the child of working-class Muslim immigrants, to help guide my policy recommendations. Additionally, as a law graduate, I bring my training in communication, confidentiality, client-centered advocacy, and creative intervention to every consulting opportunity. Having worked in criminal legal reform spaces, including litigation shops and community groups, I authored several reports analyzing how media foments anti-Black narratives, ranging from the construction of race during the “War on Drugs,†disparate narratives around mass shootings and individual acts of gun violence, and misogynoir in the media coverage of victimology and survivorship. In my current post at the New York City Commission on Human Rights, I support the Commission’s commitment to racial justice through research, relationship-building, and policy recommendations.