Janaya Khan Biography
Janaya Khan is a Toronto, Ontario, Canada-based social activist and a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto, and a Black Lives Matter Network international ambassador. Khan considers himself to be black, queer, and gender non-conforming. Much of their research examines intersectional issues such as the Black Lives Matter movement, queer theory, Black feminism, and organized protest strategies.
How old is Janaya Khan? – Age
Khan was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Janaya Khan Family
Khan was born to a Trinidadian father and a British Jamaican mother. Khan earned a Bachelor of Arts from York University, where he majored in English language and literature.
Janaya Khan Wife
Khan is married to Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter. Khan is a writer as well as a competitive amateur boxer.
Is Janaya Khan a man | is Janaya Khan a woman?
Khan uses they/them pronouns.
Janaya Khan Net Worth
Khan has an estimated net worth of $1 million.
Janaya Khan Lectures
Khan has given talks at a number of Canadian universities, including the University of Toronto and York University. They have also spoken on many college campuses in the United States, including Bryn Mawr and Emerson. They were joined at Smith College’s “When and Where I Enter” symposium in 2016 by Black Lives Matter co-founder Opal Tometi.
Janaya Khan Career
Khan believes that the police’s sole responsibility is to create criminals and that the police do not keep people safe. They (Khan) would prefer “rapid response justice teams” instead of cops.
They discussed the difficulties of growing up with an intersectional identity in a society with limited resources and knowledge about intersectionality and transfeminism in a 2016 interview with Maclean’s magazine. Khan claims that actions such as carding (a Canadian police policy in which people are stopped and questioned without regard to a specific offense) made them realize how accustomed their community had become to a heavy police presence accompanied by biased questioning. Incidents like this paved the way for their activism and, ultimately, the formation of Black Lives Matter Toronto.
Following the death of 33-year-old Jermaine Carby during a routine traffic stop in Brampton, Ontario, on September 24, 2014, Khan and fellow Black Lives Matter Toronto co-founder Sandy Hudson organized a solidarity action in October 2014. This incident occurred one month after Michael Brown was shot on August 9 in the United States.
Following the announcement of the protest, approximately 4,000 people gathered in solidarity outside the US Consulate. They decided to meet with Patrisse Cullors, one of the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, in order to build on this momentum. This meeting laid the groundwork for Black Lives Matter to become an international movement rather than just a domestic one.
Khan has led a number of protests and events in Toronto, primarily in response to incidents of police brutality in the United States and Canada. They assisted in the organization of a sit-in during Pride Toronto in July 2016, where protesters came prepared with a list of demands, including more representation of minority groups and no uniformed police presence.
The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation transferred millions to a Canadian charity run by Janaya Khan on January 29, 2022, according to the New York Post, to purchase a sprawling mansion that had once served as the Communist Party’s headquarters.
According to Toronto property records viewed by the Post, M4BJ, a Toronto-based non-profit founded by Khan and other Canadian activists, purchased the 10,000-square-foot historic property for the equivalent of $6.3 million in cash in July 2021. Khan left the group in 2021, a month after The New York Times revealed they had spent $3.2 million on homes in Georgia and Los Angeles. Khan vehemently denied that BLM donations were used to purchase the houses.
Janaya Khan Awards
Khan has received numerous awards, including the Toronto & York Region Labour Council’s 2015 Bromley Armstrong Human Rights Award, and was named one of “Toronto’s Most Influential” by Toronto Life in 2016. Their work has appeared on the websites The Root, Al Jazeera, and the Huffington Post.