Malaika Jabali is the Senior News and Politics Editor at Essence Magazine. Her writing has appeared in The Root, Teen Vogue, The New Republic, and The Guardian, where she was a columnist. She received her J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was an Articles Editor for the Columbia Journal of Race and Law, and an M.S. from the Columbia University School of Social Work. Her first political feature, "The Color of Economic Anxiety," won the 2019 New York Association for Black Journalists award for magazine feature. She is a licensed attorney who has written laws and worked in housing policy for the New York City Council and the former Co-Chair of Operation P.O.W.E.R., a grassroots organization based in Brooklyn focused on bringing Black radical politics to New York City.