Berkeley Haas MBAs Demonstrate the Power of a Single Person to Advance Social, Racial Justice

Putting The Consortium’s mission to work, MBA students Afraz Khan and Jude Watson are uplifting the voices of underrepresented — and sometimes undervalued — groups. Through their active commitment to bringing about social and racial justice, they are doing their part to advance The Consortium’s mission at the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business, in their communities and beyond. 

Uplifting the Underrepresented

As a Muslim South Asian American, Afraz Khan has been shaped in large part by his faith and the values it imparts. One of the values most important to Khan is justice. 

“I strongly believe in the idea of divine accountability. Everyone, especially those given privilege and power, will be questioned as to what they did with what was given to them,” says Khan, who is now a member of The Consortium’s class of 2023. “For myself, I see my education, my knowledge, my wealth, my health and my time all as tools not merely to increase my own status and position in this world but to impact systemic change.”

Afraz Khan

Afraz Khan

Khan’s passion for social and racial justice was sparked in college, when he was president of New York University’s Muslim Students Association (MSA). In light of an on-campus incident of racism targeted at Muslim students, he spearheaded a university-wide rally alongside allies that helped him begin to recognize the overlapping issues faced by Muslims and other historically marginalized groups. Intrigued, Khan began exploring these intersectionalities. 

“Since college, I’ve sought to continue my journey in learning about and advancing racial justice work, primarily in the areas of housing and education,” Khan says. 

He has worked in New York City’s Government Community Affairs Unit and at ACLU National as part of the organization’s Racial Justice Program, conducting advocacy and outreach work. While working at the ACLU, he was involved in building lawsuits to “dismantle racially discriminatory policies,” Khan says, specifically challenging disorderly conduct statutes — policies that he says enable law enforcement in schools to criminalize nearly any type of youth behavior, including things like purposefully burping in class. “As expected, the majority of folks arrested under this statute are students of color,” says Khan. 

Homelessness is another issue close to his heart — and one that largely affects marginalized communities. Khan serves on the board of Urban Compassion Project (UCP), an Oakland-based grassroots organization dedicated to empowering and uplifting unhoused populations in the Bay Area. One of UCP’s priorities is hosting community clean-ups alongside unhoused individuals to remove trash from their neighborhoods, 90 percent of which is illegally dumped. 

“As Vincent, UCP’s founder and executive director  — who is a formerly unhoused resident — always tells us, we need to shift the culture around tackling homelessness,” Khan says. “Our unhoused neighbors cannot be treated with anything less than sincere dignity and empathy.” In just two years, UCP has collected 72 tons of trash. 

One of his side projects, Muslim Wedding Service (MWS) allows Khan to combine his faith traditions with his passion for inclusion and, more recently, racial justice. Khan and his nationwide team of 25 trained officiants work with interracial and interfaith couples in the Muslim American community to craft inclusive wedding ceremonies. In the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, Khan felt compelled to utilize his company’s platform to help advance racial equity.

The organization committed 50 percent of its profits from its summer 2020 weddings to Black-led racial justice organizations. The result was more than $4,000 for Muslim ARC, Believers Bail Out and Sapelo Square. Khan has continued to build on MWS’s social enterprise model by donating a portion of its annual proceeds to nonprofits and social services in New York City. In the last four years, it has provided $60,000-plus in support of community programs, the building of a domestic violence shelter and racial justice advocacy work. 

“Given that almost one-third of the Muslim American community comprises our Black brothers and sisters, we acknowledged that we were not doing enough both to eliminate racially oppressive systems as well as uplift Black voices,” Khan says. 

Doing what is within his power to help others is what sustains Khan, and he is a big believer in everyone’s ability to change the world. “Every person has their own avenue to implement change and their own spheres of influence to do it within. So long as there is a sincere commitment to uplift others and a willingness to sacrifice in order to achieve such an aim, a difference can be made anywhere,” he says. “Impacting even one soul could mean transforming generations to come.”

Empowering the Overlooked

Jude Watson’s (they/them) interest in social justice came about organically through community involvement. 

“As a queer young person in Seattle, I got involved in LGBTQ community organizing as a way to meet other queer people and became deeply involved in a project opening a community center for queer youth,” says Watson, who is now student body president at Haas and a member of The Consortium’s class of 2023.

Jude Watson

Jude Watson

Through this experience, Watson was introduced to many social justice concepts around race, class, gender and ability — and thus blossomed a passion for this work. For the last 15 years, Watson has been involved in community organizing, with a focus on transgender advocacy and fundraising for racial justice. 

Prior to business school, Watson was a fine dining chef and was inspired to launch a racial justice organization aligned with this industry. “In 2020, I started a social enterprise called Cooks for Black Lives Matter (BLM), which sold CSA (community-supported agriculture) boxes of gourmet foods donated by Seattle restaurants as a fundraiser for local Black-led community organizing,” Watson says. 

The organization continues to operate in Seattle, where it has raised nearly $100,000 to help end police brutality and create Black community spaces in the city. Watson is moved by the initiative’s ability to have a real impact at the grassroots level and believes in its continued importance. 

“Because a very small percentage of foundation funds go to community organizing projects working to end structural inequity — as opposed to simply addressing the symptoms of it — local projects like Cooks for Black Lives Matter are crucial to funding racial justice work,” says Watson. 

Beyond Cooks for BLM, Watson hopes to have greater impact and is working to do so even now. As the newly elected student body president at Haas, Watson brings a unique perspective to the role — one that will likely bleed over to the workplace. 

“To my knowledge, I am the first-ever openly transgender president of a business school. By nature of frequently being the only trans person in my classes and at previous jobs, I’m very attuned to the challenges faced by underrepresented groups in their careers,” Watson says. “After business school, I am planning to work in corporate DEI to help workers, especially queer people and people of color, feel whole at work and able to meet their full potential as leaders.”

Regardless of one’s background or resources, Watson believes everyone has something to offer in the fight for social justice — “whether it’s our time, resources, skills or personal connections,” Watson says. “When I founded Cooks for BLM, I evaluated how I was best equipped to make change and realized I had both time to spare and access to a powerful network of professional chefs in Seattle.” You may be surprised by what you gain from the experience, Watson notes. “I’ve met many of my closest friends through community organizing, and it’s helped me be more in touch with my own identities and strengths as well,” says Watson. “I know it can do the same for others.”