UPDATE: BLM Organizer Xahra Saleem Guilty of Fraud?
UPDATE: Maejor Danger - ‘Sir Maejor Page’ in Legal Trouble
SOURCES
FOOTNOTES
NOTE; AFTER OTHER STUFF HAS BEEN WRITTEN AND EDITED, LOOK UP POST MILLENNIAL ARTICLES ON BLM AND MORE FROM, SAY, ZERO HEDGE, DAILY MAIL, ETC. AND ADD TO SOURCES SECTION, KEEPING THEM IN BOLD THEN GO THROUG ALL ARTICLES IN BOLD AND USE ACCORDINGLY
Image from the New York Post, captioned, “An overview of the homes bought or looked at by Khan-Cullors.”
Image from blacklivesmatter.com.
“Sir Maejor Page”, a prominent figure of BLM who got himself into some serious trouble (see the UPDATES section below). Image from 11 Alive.
WHAT is BLM?
Short Answer
The subject of Black Lives Matter or BLM is rather polarizing. As we’ll see, Black Lives Matter is a phrase, a slogan, a chant, a movement and what seems to be a single parent organization (that is actually 2 different legal entities - the nonprofit Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation and the for-profit BLM Global Network) and multiple chapters and otherwise associated groups.
Black Lives Matter can mean something different depending on what part of the movement is being referenced and who is doing the referencing. For instance, when the term is used to show opposition to police brutality or other racially charged issues, it does not necessarily imply connection with any particular organization. In this sense it serves more as an expression of one’s views, rather than affiliations.
a phrase, and notably a hashtag, used to highlight racism, discrimination and inequality experienced by black people.
Yet, "BLM is not an equal rights movement” reads a headline for a Post Millennial article by Libby Emmons. She writes that though the slogan “black lives matter” is something anyone can get behind, it
is not the summation of the movement. BLM is a political party that is seeking to control the conversation around their platform by using coercion disguised as a call for compassion. But this is not a call to compassionate and anti-racist action, it is a demand to support a political party with a very specific set of radical demands or else suffer the social consequences of being labelled a racist or white supremacist.
Additionally, activists will protest, vandalize, destroy public and private property, and commit violent acts, all while claiming that these actions are peaceful. Indeed, mainstream media has capitulated to this free speech narrative, while when anti-lockdown protestors demanded their rights—to speech, assembly, and religion—they were derided as hateful and stupid.
Emmons also writes,
Believing that black lives matter and backing BLM do not have to be the same thing. Black lives matter, but BLM uses its messaging as emotional cudgel to coerce Americans into supporting a political party with an agenda of inequality, in service, as are all political parties, to its own ideology.
As we can already see the gulf between the perceptions of some regarding BLM and that of others. BLM has referred to itself as a
Interestingly, blacklivesmatter.com has defined BLM as
a decentralized political and racial justice movement that helped lead the global protests over police violence in 2020
Notice how the seem to suggest that they were not involved with protests prior to 2020. Why might that be? Perhaps we shall see. BLM is also described at blacklivesmatter.com as
an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise. It is an affirmation of Black folks’ humanity, our contributions to this society, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression.
Again, a source that doesn’t mention the riots, the arson, the violence.
As will become more evident as we go on, whether one idealizes BLM or has a more realistic view of BLM seems to generally correlates with where one falls on the political compass. Whereas Libby Emmons and others at the Post Millennial have reported on actual facts regarding BLM over the years (some of which we’ll see below), other sources ignore the reality of BLM as we shall witness.
While they lie by way of omission about the violence and destruction wreaked by BLM, Encyclopedia Britannica describes it as an “international social movement”, an “international activist movement” and a
decentralized grassroots movement … led by activists in local chapters who organize their own campaigns and programs.
The chapters are affiliated with the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, a nonprofit civil rights organization that is active in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
According to theLA Times andthe New York Post, there are actually two legal entities that are together (along with the broader movement) known as BLM. As mentioned above, there’s the nonprofit Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation and there’s the for-profit BLM Global Network that isn’t legally required to disclose what it pays executives or what it spends. Encyclopedia Britannia fails to get this point correct just as it fails to accurately describe BLM. According to the LA Times, the nonprofit foundation Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation is registered with the IRS.
Both the non-profit BLMGNF and the for-profit BLMGN were set up by Patrisse Khan-Cullors according to the New York Post which also reports that
Some have criticized the lack of transparency
Speaking of transparency, in a statement on blacklivesmatter.com, Patrisse Khan-Cullors refers to herself as the co-founder and strategic advisor of the Black Lives Matter Global Network but does not mention the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. The LA Times reported in 2022 that it is
this legal entity that receives donations and distributes the money to activists working in the BLM Grassroots official chapters, of which L.A.’s is the first.
Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi. Image source: Herstory by Black Lives Matter (subsequently renamed Our History)
Image cropped. Original from the New York Post, captioned, “(From left) Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi are credited with starting the BLM call to action. Jemal Countess/Getty Images for The New York Women's Foundation”
According to their website and other sources such as Encyclopedia Britannica1, BLM was started in 2013 by Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi who, along with their BLM organizations, their BLM website (blacklivesmatter.com) and other BLM groups and leaders are openly communist in their ideals, demands and goals as we’ll see.
It seems a bit puzzling, then, that Patrisse Khan-Cullors has reportedly (as we’ll see below) purchased millions of dollars in real estate for herself as just one example. Indeed, as we will see, a good number of BLM figures would find themselves in legal trouble over money.
In the section called Herstory on blacklivesmatter.com, they write,
In 2013, three radical Black organizers — Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi — created a Black-centered political will and movement building project called #BlackLivesMatter. It was in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer, George Zimmerman.
when Trayvon Martin was murdered and in 2013 when George Zimmerman was acquitted my body and spirit was moved into action.
Too bad her mind wasn't moved. Or maybe her mind was moved and she realized that she could make a lot of money from the people who were upset over the issue and buy herself some expensive houses in rich mostly-white areas. But I digress. She continues,
I couldn’t imagine how in 2013 a white passing person could kill a young boy and not be held accountable.
This is the man she says is “white passing” and who she also refers to as a “white supremacist”. I don’t know this man’s professed beliefs, but it seems to be a no-brainer that if you are not white, you're not a white supremacist. You may be crazy enough to think you are, but you’re not white, you’re not a white supremacist, you’re just crazy. But perhaps if one can see only in black and white, Zimmerman could be white and therefore a white supremacist.
In her statement on blacklivesmatter.com, Patrisse Khan-Cullors refers to herself as the co-founder and strategic advisor of the Black Lives Matter Global Network. She also states,
I didn’t want George Zimmerman to be the period to the story. I didn’t want his name to be the name held up over and over again by the media, by his fellow white supremacists.
That’s why when I saw the phrase Black Lives Matter spelled out by Alicia Garza in a love letter towards Black people – I decided to put a hashtag on it. Alicia, Opal, and I created #BlackLivesMatter as an online community to help combat anti-Black racism across the globe. We firmly believed our movement, which would later become an organization, needed to be a contributing voice for Black folks and our allies to support changing the material conditions for Black people.
The project is now a member-led global network of more than 40 chapters. Our members organize and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes.
. . .
As organizers who work with everyday people, BLM members see and understand significant gaps in movement spaces and leadership. Black liberation movements in this country have created room, space, and leadership mostly for Black heterosexual, cisgender men — leaving women, queer and transgender people, and others either out of the movement or in the background to move the work forward with little or no recognition. As a network, we have always recognized the need to center the leadership of women and queer and trans people. To maximize our movement muscle, and to be intentional about not replicating harmful practices that excluded so many in past movements for liberation, we made a commitment to placing those at the margins closer to the center.
As #BlackLivesMatter developed throughout 2013 and 2014, we utilized it as a platform and organizing tool. Other groups, organizations, and individuals used it to amplify anti-Black racism across the country, in all the ways it showed up. Tamir Rice, Tanisha Anderson, Mya Hall, Walter Scott, Sandra Bland — these names are inherently important. The space that #BlackLivesMatter held and continues to hold helped propel the conversation around the state-sanctioned violence they experienced. We particularly highlighted the egregious ways in which Black women, specifically Black trans women, are violated. #BlackLivesMatter was developed in support of all Black lives.
In 2014, Mike Brown was murdered by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. It was a guttural response to be with our people, our family — in support of the brave and courageous community of Ferguson and St. Louis as they were being brutalized by law enforcement, criticized by media, tear gassed, and pepper sprayed night after night. Darnell Moore and Patrisse Cullors organized a national ride during Labor Day weekend that year. We called it the Black Life Matters Ride. In 15 days, we developed a plan of action to head to the occupied territory to support our brothers and sisters. Over 600 people gathered. We made two commitments: to support the team on the ground in St. Louis, and to go back home and do the work there. We understood Ferguson was not an aberration, but in fact, a clear point of reference for what was happening to Black communities everywhere.
When it was time for us to leave, inspired by our friends in Ferguson, organizers from 18 different cities went back home and developed Black Lives Matter chapters in their communities and towns — broadening the political will and movement building reach catalyzed by the #BlackLivesMatter project and the work on the ground in Ferguson.
It became clear that we needed to continue organizing and building Black power across the country. People were hungry to galvanize their communities to end state-sanctioned violence against Black people, the way Ferguson organizers and allies were doing. Soon we created the Black Lives Matter Global Network infrastructure. It is adaptive and decentralized, with a set of guiding principles. Our goal is to support the development of new Black leaders, as well as create a network where Black people feel empowered to determine our destinies in our communities.
The Black Lives Matter Global Network would not be recognized worldwide if it weren’t for the folks in St. Louis and Ferguson who put their bodies on the line day in and day out, and who continue to show up for Black lives.
Image published by the New York Post (April 16, 2021), captioned, “Patrisse Khan-Cullors poses during Glamour Celebrates 2017 Women of The Year Live Summit at the Brooklyn Museum, Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for Glamour”
NOTE: It was reported on May 28, 2021, that Patrisse Cullors
has stepped down as executive director of the movement’s foundation.
In a later section, we will see how this coincides with some scandal in her life. Here are a few other reports on this.
Support for Black Lives Matter may indeed be high: A March poll conducted online by The Washington Post and the University of Maryland found 65 percent of Americans said they supported Black Lives Matter — similar to the 63 percent who indicated support in a Post-ABC telephone poll last July.
Also,
In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, the phrase “Black Lives Matter” began to appear everywhere: on front lawns and back bumpers, on NBA players’ warm-up shirts during pregame shoot-arounds, on gamers’ title screens when they fired up “FIFA 20,” on the tongues of longtime activists, college coaches, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah). On the chests of Black people asserting their humanity and White people professing their allyship.
BLM was cofounded in 2013 as an online movement (using the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter on social media) by three Black community organizers—Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi. They formed BLM after George Zimmerman, a man of German and Peruvian descent, was acquitted on charges stemming from his fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager, in Sanford, Florida, in February 2012.
a housing project less than a mile from the affluent and largely white neighborhood of Sherman Oaks, a community of wide lawns and pools where “there is nothing that does not appear beautiful and well kept.” The four kids were mostly raised by her single mother, who worked 16 hours a day to support the family, she writes.
Vincent also states that Cullors wrote that she grew up living in
“a two-story, tan-colored building where the paint is peeling and where there is a gate that does not close properly and an intercom system that never works,”
and wrote
“The only place in my hood to buy groceries is a 7-Eleven.”
Furthermore,
Khan-Cullors embraced activism and Marxism at a young age. “It started the year I turned twelve,” she writes. “That was the year that I learned that being black and poor defined me more than being bright and hopeful and ready.”
But she didn’t rise to national prominence until 2013, when she and two other activists protested the not-guilty verdict against George Zimmerman, who shot dead Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager in Florida.
Black Lives Matter protests erupted again in 2020 after the May killing of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck during his arrest.
The deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown were also factors in the rise of BLM, reports the BBC. Encyclopedia Britannicanotes the importance of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor as well.
Donations and pledges from corporations and individuals poured into the movement at that point. In February, the BLM nonprofit co-founded by Khan-Cullors told the AP that they took in $90 million in 2020, with $21.7 million committed to grant funding and helping 30 black-led groups across the country.
Black Lives Matter leaders would not specify how much money they took in from prominent donors, according to the AP report.
We’ll return to the question of questionable finance below. Vincent reports furthermore,
Founded by Khan-Cullors and another activist, Kailee Scales, the nonprofit Oakland, Calif.-based BLM Global Network Foundation was incorporated in 2017 and claims to have chapters throughout the US, the UK and Canada, and a mission “to eradicate White supremacy and build power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities.” The group does not have a federal tax exemption and donations are filtered through ActBlue Charities and Thousand Currents, two nonprofits that manage the cash.
The Black Lives Matter movement has many goals. BLM activists seek to draw attention to the many ways in which Black people are treated unfairly in society and the ways in which institutions, laws, and policies help to perpetuate that unfairness. The movement has fought racism through such means as political action, letter-writing campaigns, and nonviolent protests. BLM seeks to combat police brutality, the over-policing of minority neighbourhoods, and the abuses committed by for-profit jails. Its efforts have included calls for better training for police and greater accountability for police misconduct. BLM activists have also called for “defunding” the police—that is, reducing police department budgets and investing the freed-up funds in community social services, such as mental health and conflict-resolution programs. BLM activists have worked on voter registration and get-out-the-vote campaigns in Black communities. In addition, BLM programs have celebrated Black artists and writers.
Notice that Britannica failed to acknowledge the violence and destruction. However, in the subsection headed ‘Support and criticism’, they frame it that critics allege
that BLM encouraged violence against police.
They also state,
Facing a tough race, Pres. Donald Trump, a Republican, was harshly critical of BLM, notably citing isolated acts of violence and looting that accompanied some of the demonstrations against racism and police brutality. He also used the protests as a means to promote a law-and-order platform while appealing to the grievances of some whites. His challenger, Democrat Joe Biden, embraced the movement and Black voters, who were instrumental in his eventual victory.
Thus, the closest they come to acknowledging BLM violence and destruction if to state that Trump cited “isolated acts of violence and looting that accompanied some of the demonstrations against racism and police brutality” without stating whether or not they are referring to BLM events or whether or not Trump’s statements were accurate.
BLM & Political Ideology
While not all who march and chant the phrase, “black lives matter” are so, the founders are Communists. In this video interview from 2015 with the Real News Network (starting at about 6:59, BLM co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors says that BLM has an ideological frame. She says that they, (she and BLM co-founder Alicia Garza (seen here) in particular) are "trained Marxists" and "are super-versed on, sort of, ideological theories".
In a 2020 video (see below)
that she uploaded to her Youtube channel, Patrisse Khan-Cullors inexplicably mocks comments that point out what she admitted in that 2015 interview; that they are marxists. After laughing off the accusations, she admits they are true. At 1:23 (see below)
she says, "I do believe in Marxism" while wearing a shirt with the image of Jimi Hendrix, a man who celebrated freedom and individuality, not collectivist authoritarian systems of oppression like communism.
By the way, I am pretty sure that the shirt is a bootleg meaning that she helped to rip off Al Hendrix, Jimi's father, who, for the sake of the black and Cherokee Hendrix family, keeps strict copywrite control over all merchandising. After admitting yet again that they are Marxists, she says (at 1:50 see below)
that those accurate comments that she mocked are "incredibly hurtful"!
She then admits that communism has failed every time it has been implemented and then she engages in "whataboutism" (a tu quoque fallacy) by claiming that capitalism also always fails. But then she admits that the success of capitalism makes it difficult to convince people to turn from capitalism to communism.
One might wonder how a person can be that oblivious to her obvious self-contradictions short of insanity. What about her co-founders?
BLM co-founder Alicia Garza also inexplicably laughs about people reporting on her communism in a video for the Atlantic (starting at 4:51). In that same video she makes it clear that she is against the Constitutional rights to peaceably assemble, to gather as a militia and the right to bear arms (starting at 10:00). So the communist is against Constitutional Rights and capitalism. How utterly surprising.
Opal Tometi wrote Black Lives Matter Network Denounces U.S. Continuing Intervention in Venezuela for Venezuelanalysis in which she applies the term “counter revolutionary” (which is communist propaganda for opposition to communist regimes) for parties that oppose the Venezuelan dictatorship and wherein she objects to calling Hugo Chavez a dictator, and writes,
We stand with the Venezuelan people as they build a revolutionary and popular democracy based on communal power. Their struggle is our own.
which, as you may know if you are familiar with this stuff, means that they are in solidarity with the socialist government of Venezuela.
One could fairly describe cultural Marxism as a form of Marxism (or post-Marxism) in which the communist goal is hidden beneath a mask of anti-racism, anti-sexism, and other seemingly innocent and noble causes. See the Culture War Encyclopedia section cultural Marxism for an in depth look, but a cultural Marxist, for example, might refer to the Western civilization that they want to destroy as the "cisheteropatriarchy".
We are intentional about amplifying the particular experiences of racial, economic, and gender-based state and interpersonal violence that Black women, queer, trans, gender nonconforming, intersex, and disabled people face. Cisheteropatriarchy and ableism are central and instrumental to anti-Blackness and racial capitalism, and have been internalized within our communities and movements.
We might not know exactly what they mean by "racial capitalism" but we can certainly guess, quite fairly, that they want the reader to associate capitalism with racism.
We might gather something from their webpages such as their preamble which states,
We are committed to uprooting the ableism and cisheteropatriarchy we have internalized, and to transforming the conditions that drive sexual, gender-based, homophobic, transphobic, abelist, and other forms of violence in our communities.
While this platform is focused on domestic policies, we know that cisheteropatriarchy, ableism, exploitative racial capitalism, imperialism, militarism, and white supremacy and nationalism are global structures. We move in solidarity with our international family against the ravages of global racial capitalism and anti-Black racism, human-made climate change, Islamophobia, war, and exploitation...
...We demand repair for the harms that have been done to Black communities, in the form of reparations and targeted long- term investments...We demand political power and community control over the institutions which govern our lives...
Then they demand that the cisheteroapatriarchy (Western civilization) “END THE WAR ON BLACK MIGRANTS” which one might guess means that they demand that the USA allows black migrants to enter the USA without restriction. They furthermore demand, “END THE USE OF PAST CRIMINAL HISTORY” whatever that means and “END ALL JAILS, PRISONS AND IMMIGRATION DETENTION”.
...We demand: an immediate release of Black people from jails, prisons, and detention centers...
...In this moment, we must get our people out of cages and ensure they have what they need to be healthy and free...
...Halt all new sentences...
...Release all people held on probation...
...Suspend all immigration arrests, including at-large arrests...
...Release all detained individuals (in jails and detention centers) on their own recognizance...
...support for transportation home, living stipend, and access to healthcare as well as funding for food stamps, housing vouchers, or hotel rooms for those returning home...
...Suspend ALL immigration enforcement activities and operations. DHS must suspend deportations, immigration arrests, mass raids, detentions, and enforcement in sensitive locations...
On the same webpage, they make demands with inexplicable redundancy. They make various other mistakes and contradict themselves as well. They demand a Universal Basic Income, meaning those who work support those who don’t. They want it for more than just citizens of the USA. They want it,
for all people living in the United States including disabled, undocumented people as well as currently incarcerated people.
They want to,
Cancel student debt through an Executive Order and/or congressional action
Anyone who disagrees with BLM is considered to be a bad person. This is how they are securing so many supporters and followers, who wish simply to not be thought of as bad people, so they jump on board rather than face the wrath of these extremist activists. Corporations give money to the cause, allow their employees to make political statements at work so long as they are pro-BLM, and are still vilified by activists.
As we read above under What is BLM?, Emmons writes that BLM uses
coercion disguised as a call for compassion.
and that this coercion has involved protest, violence, vandalism, the destruction of public and private property,
all while claiming that these actions are peaceful. Indeed, mainstream media has capitulated to this free speech narrative, while when anti-lockdown protestors demanded their rights—to speech, assembly, and religion—they were derided as hateful and stupid.
Libby Emmons also writes,
The Black Lives Matter political organization has issued a platform of destructive and nonsensical demands that have no associated course of action other than the destruction of American society. It requires the destruction of public property, the removal of elected leaders through non-democratic means, the abolishment of police, opposition to Israel, and a giving over of public discourse entirely to the issue of race and racism.
Emmons cites an official BLM petition from March 30, 2020 headed #DefundThePolice being shared on social media platforms that states,
Enough is enough. Our pain, our cries, and our need to be seen and heard resonate throughout this entire country. We demand acknowledgment and accountability for the devaluation and dehumanization of Black life at the hands of the police. We call for radical, sustainable solutions that affirm the prosperity of Black lives.
We call for an end to the systemic racism that allows this culture of corruption to go unchecked and our lives to be taken. We call for a national defunding of police. We demand investment in our communities and the resources to ensure Black people not only survive, but thrive.
Emmons writes of this petition that it
is an ask for redress of emotional grievances, accompanied by a shift in taxpayer dollars. It is not a call for civil rights, or equality under the law. Instead, it is a political platform that intends to use compassionate messaging to bend people to its cause.
BLM asks for investment and funding to go to black communities. What is interesting, however, is that the cities that activists are occupying, burning, and tearing asunder are Democrat led cities. They are governed by leaders who routinely pour money into poor communities, increase public amenities, increase taxes on the wealthy to fund it, and work hard to find ways to integrate, elevate, and help black communities thrive. These measures are clearly not enough for BLM, but they’re not offering any solutions other than a barrage of emotional messaging.
There has been investment in housing, both public and in terms of removing the barriers to home ownership. There has been investment into education, in terms of traditional models of academic achievement, as well as job training and charter schools. There have been public set aside programs for public contracts, and when it turned out that there were not enough minority companies to meet these set-asides, investment was made in, for example, helping black women become construction managers so that they could bid on city jobs.
What BLM is seeking is not equal treatment, but special treatment, and they’re not looking for it simply from public policy, but from each American who must acquiesce to the party or suffer insults. Agreeing with the BLM platform does not equate to being anti-racist; disagreement does not equate to racism. It is a political party, a political movement. Believing that black lives matter and backing BLM do not have to be the same thing. Black lives matter, but BLM uses its messaging as emotional cudgel to coerce Americans into supporting a political party with an agenda of inequality, in service, as are all political parties, to its own ideology.
LOOK UP ZERO HEDGE articles on BLM chronologically
also lookk up POST MILLENNIAL ARTICLES ON BLM AND MORE FROM, SAY, , DAILY MAIL, ETC. AND ADD TO SOURCES SECTION, KEEPING THEM IN BOLD THEN GO THROUG ALL ARTICLES IN BOLD AND USE ACCORDINGLY
MAYBE DO A SECTION ON THE BLM MURALS AND STREET THINGS AND HOW PPL HAVE MARRED THEM AND GOT IN TROUBLE
The argument of BLM comes from the tenets of critical race theory, which states that racism is so much a part of the American systems of democracy and liberty that they must be dismantled, and democracy along with it.
Image from LA Times, captioned, “Supporters march at a rally organized by Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles at Pan Pacific Park in May 2020. It was one of thousands of protests across the country after a white Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)”
Michael Jordan recently released a statement pledging $100 million over 10 years “to organizations dedicated to ensuring racial equality, social justice and greater access to education,” and he framed that commitment under the umbrella of “Black lives matter.” As a result, this was sometimes reported as a $100 million contribution to Black Lives Matter itself. Jordan clearly intends to give in conjunction with the broader goals of the Black Lives Matter movement, but he was not specific about which entities would be the recipients — and there are many, many out there that could fit his description. The unique way that Black Lives Matter straddles the border between decentralized protest movement and organized nonprofit entity makes this confusion understandable and likely to persist.
When Black Lives Matter is used to refer to an organization, it typically means the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLM Global Network Foundation). This is the central group that traces its beginnings to “three radical Black organizers — Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi,” and operates the BlackLivesMatter.com website.
The group has been a fiscally sponsored project of Thousand Currents, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, since 2016. What this means in practice is that the organization does not have its own IRS tax-exempt status but is operating as a “project” of an organization that does. In the case of 501(c)(3) fiscally sponsored projects, this allows for tax-deductible donations.
Thousand Currents says on its website that the official name of this Black Lives Matter entity is “Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Inc.,” which is also the name the group has used on recent press releases.
Here’s where things get tricky: BLM Global Network Foundation also uses the name “Black Lives Matter Foundation, Inc.” on its About page and “Black Lives Matter Global Foundation, Inc.” in its website Privacy Policy.
Further complicating matters is a group called “Black Lives Matter Foundation,” based in Santa Clarita, Calif., that insists it’s unaffiliated with the larger BLM Global Network Foundation (although Thousand Currents, the fiscal sponsor of BLM Global Network Foundation, reported a combined $90,130 in grants to the Santa Clarita-based Black Lives Matter Foundation on its fiscal year 2018 and 2017 tax filings).
As reported by Buzzfeed News here, this confusion has led some donors to give to organizations they didn’t intend to. The Black Lives Matter Foundation in Santa Clarita and BLM Global Network Foundation “have very different stances on police relations,” with the former wanting to “help bring the police and the community closer together” and the latter calling for police defunding.
According to grants reported on their respective tax filings and websites, organizations that have specifically earmarked contributions to Thousand Currents for Black Lives Matter (and thus presumably for BLM Global Network Foundation) include the NoVo Foundation ($1,525,000 from 2015 to 2018), the W.K. Kellogg Foundation ($900,000 from 2016 to 2019), and Borealis Philanthropy ($343,000 from 2016 to 2018). And, given that BLM Global Network Foundation recently announceda new $6.5-million grassroots organizing fund thanks to “the generosity and support of donors,” its revenue is likely to significantly increase in 2020.
BLM Global Network Foundation is also positioned at the center of a network of 16 affiliated local chapters, such as Black Lives Matter Chicago and Black Lives Matter Detroit. In some cases, these chapters are themselves fiscally sponsored by other nonprofit organizations.
There’s also a second organization, the Movement For Black Lives, which operates under a fiscal sponsorship arrangement as a project of the Alliance for Global Justice, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. On its website homepage, the Movement for Black Lives describes itself as “a collective of more than 50 organizations,” while its donation page says it “is made up of over 150 organizations.” One group listed among the 150 is the “Black Lives Matter Network,” though it is unclear whether this refers to BLM Global Network Foundation. The Movement for Black Lives is itself listed as a “Partner” on BLM Global Network Foundation’s website.
The situation is further complicated by the involvement of ActBlue Charities, another confusing entity that serves as a fundraising machine for left-leaning groups and politicians, and as the means through which donations to both BLM Global Network Foundation and the Movement for Black Lives get collected and dispersed. What all of this amounts to, should a supporter of the movement decide to donate like Michael Jordan did, is confusion about exactly who people are giving to when they decide to donate to “Black Lives Matter.”
The Black Lives Matter movement has sparked an outpouring of more than $1 billion in corporate giving — and launched a wild scramble for the cash among a dozen BLM groups scattered across the country.
Some are for-profit, some are nonprofit but all are positioned to claim big bucks in corporate pledges from companies such as Bank of America, Walmart and Facebook.
Four are already in trouble with the IRS, according to public records.
They show that BLM charities in New York, Vermont, Florida and South Carolina have had their nonprofit status revoked by the IRS for failing to file annual returns.
There’s also confusion among the groups, along with a lack of transparency, which is alarming watchdogs.
Robert Ray Barnes, a music producer from California, incorporated the Black Lives Matter Foundation in California in May 2015, more than a year before BLM Global Network — the self-styled leader of the movement — was founded as a for-profit firm in Delaware, records show.
Some donors got the two mixed up.
Barnes, 67, who started his shoe-string outfit after a friend was gunned down by Los Angeles police in 2011, runs it from his home Santa Clarita. He’s the only employee.
He paid himself $24,000 to run the organization in 2017, the latest tax filings show. The charity took in $279,109 in 2017, and spent $189,000 on homeless services and producing a rap video to raise awareness of police violence in the black community.
But Barnes, who ended up marrying his friend’s widow and raising her two young children, nearly ended up with millions because some who wanted to give thought his organization was the nationally recognized Global Network.
“What appears to have happened to me is that when people searched for Black Lives Matter, the Global Network didn’t return anyone’s calls,” Barnes told The Post.
“So they thought I was the main group because I return all calls to my charity.”
Workers at Apple, Microsoft, Dropbox and Google halted their plans to give more than $4 million to Barnes’ group through online charity platforms last month after BuzzFeed reported the nonprofit did not represent the wider Black Lives Matter movement.
Barnes’s foundation got a further slap on the wrist weeks ago when New York’s Attorney General Letitia James demanded the group “cease solicitation” of New York donations because it had not registered as a charity in the state.
Barnes told The Post he had never asked for donations in New York. He said he now plans to fill out the necessary documents to register here.
Exactly how much BLM Global Network raises or spends — or pays its executives — is unknown because for-profits are not required to disclose such data, as nonprofits are.
It’s not to be confused with BLM Global Network Foundation, which was incorporated as a charity in 2017 but it does not have a federal tax exemption, records show.
Founded by activists Patrisse Cullors and Kailee Scales, the Oakland, Calif.-based BLM Global Network Foundation claims to have chapters throughout the US, UK and Canada, and a mission “to eradicate White supremacy and build power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities.”
It sells a host of merchandise, including T-shirts, masks and mugs, claiming that unspecified proceeds help fund the movement.
Donations go through ActBlue Charities, an online fundraising platform that also collects money for progressive causes linked to the Democratic super PAC ActBlue.
In 2019, ActBlue raised more than $1 billion in online funds for Democratic candidates.
“What the ActBlue charity does with that [the Black Lives Matter] money is not entirely clear,” said Lloyd Mayer, an expert on nonprofit law at the University of Notre Dame’s Law School.
“The arrangement is not transparent.”
A spokesperson for ActBlue Charities said the group passes along contributions “directly to the receiving campaign or group.” Its website says that “Your contribution will benefit Black Lives Matter Support Fund at Tides Foundation,” a nonprofit that administers cash for other charities.
Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has said that it also works in conjunction with Thousand Currents, another nonprofit that helps grassroots organizations administer their donations.
Neither Thousand Currents nor BLM Global Network returned The Post’s calls or emails.
Experts say it’s not uncommon for fundraisers to set up for-profit companies that are not limited in what they can do, like charities are. But in order to raise money, the for-profit company must partner with a nonprofit.
began her buying spree in LA in 2016, a few years after the civil rights movement she started from a hashtag — #blacklivesmatter — with fellow activists Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi began to gain traction around the world.
That year, she bought a three-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom home in Inglewood for $510,000. It is now worth nearly $800,000. Khan-Cullors added her wife, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter in Canada, to the deed in a family trust last year. The couple married in 2016.
Two years later, in 2018, Khan-Cullors purchased a four-bedroom home in South Los Angeles, a multi-ethnic neighborhood. Khan-Cullors paid $590,000 for the 1,725-square-foot home, although the price has since climbed to $720,000, according to public records.
Also, in 2020,
Khan-Cullors and Khan were spotted in the Bahamas looking for a unit at the Albany, a real estate source who did not want to be identified told The Post. The elite enclave is laid out on “600 oceanside acres” and features a private marina and designer golf course. Current homes for sale include a nearly 8,000-square-foot, six-bedroom townhouse with a media room and marina views. The price is only available upon request, according to the resort’s website.
“People who buy at the Albany are buying their fourth or fifth home,” said a resort worker who did not want to be identified. “This is not a second-home residence. It’s extremely high-end, and people are coming here for complete and total privacy.”
While it’s not clear if Khan-Cullors purchased a property at the island retreat for the super-rich, her mere interest shows just how far she has come from the hardscrabble Van Nuys neighborhood in LA where she spent her childhood with two brothers and a younger sister.
Patrisse Khan-Cullors, 37, also eyed property in the Bahamas at an ultra-exclusive resort where Justin Timberlake and Tiger Woods both have homes, The Post has learned. Luxury apartments and townhouses at the beachfront Albany resort outside Nassau are priced between $5 million and $20 million, according to a local agent.
The self-described Marxist last month purchased a $1.4 million home on a secluded road a short drive from Malibu in Los Angeles, according to a report. The 2,370-square-foot property features “soaring ceilings, skylights and plenty of windows” with canyon views. The Topanga Canyon homestead, which includes two houses on a quarter-acre, is just one of three homes Khan-Cullors owns in the Los Angeles area, public records show.
Some fellow activists were taken aback by the real estate revelations.
Hawk Newsome, the head of Black Lives Matter Greater New York City, which is not affiliated with Khan-Cullors’ Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, called for “an independent investigation” to find out how the global network spends its money.
Below are some of the many images from the article.
Vincentin continues,
“If you go around calling yourself a socialist, you have to ask how much of her own personal money is going to charitable causes,” he said. “It’s really sad because it makes people doubt the validity of the movement and overlook the fact that it’s the people that carry this movement.”
Last year, Khan-Cullors and spouse Janaya Khan ventured to Georgia to acquire a fourth home — a “custom ranch” on 3.2 rural acres in Conyers featuring a private airplane hangar with a studio apartment above it, and the use of a 2,500-foot “paved/grass” community runway that can accommodate small airplanes.
The three-bedroom, two-bath house, about 30 minutes from Atlanta, has an indoor swimming pool and a separate “RV shop” that can accommodate the repair of a mobile home or small aircraft, according to the real estate listing.
Vincentin reports that Cullors bought it for $415,000 and reported that it was 2 years after her best-selling memoir, “When They Call You a Terrorist” was published. She no doubt made a lot of money with a best selling book. Additionally, Vincentin reports, in October of 2020, Patrisse Khan-Cullors signed a
“a multi-platform” deal with Warner Bros. Television Group to help produce content for “black voices who have been historically marginalized,” she said in a statement.
It is not known how much Khan-Cullors received in compensation in either deal.
This report also states,
Three of the homes were bought in Khan-Cullors’ name, and the Topanga Canyon property was purchased under a limited liability company that she controls, according to public records cited by “Dirt,” the real estate blog that first reported the March 30 purchase.
Oh, there’s much more. Further on in the report, we read,
Newsome of NYC’s BLM said, “We need black firms and black accountants to go in there and find out where the money is going.” He added that his group does not receive any financial support from the BLM Global Network.
Khan-Cullors did not return requests for comment, but on Monday, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation issued the following statement to The Post:
“Patrisse Cullors is the Executive Director of Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF). She serves in this role in a volunteer capacity and does not receive a salary or benefits. Patrisse has received a total of $120,000 since the organization’s inception in 2013, for duties such as serving as spokesperson and engaging in political education work. Patrisse did not receive any compensation after 2019.
“To be abundantly clear, as a registered 501c3, BLMGNF cannot and did not commit any organizational resources toward the purchase of personal property by any employee or volunteer. Any insinuation or assertion to the contrary is categorically false.
“Patrisse’s work for Black people over the years has made her and others who align with the fight for Black liberation targets of racist violence. The narratives being spread about Patrisse have been generated by right-wing forces intent on reducing the support and influence of a movement that is larger than any one organization. This right-wing offensive not only puts Patrisse, her child and her loved ones in harm’s way, it also continues a tradition of terror by white supremacists against Black activists. All Black activists know the fear these malicious and serious actions are meant to instill: the fear of being silenced, the trauma of being targeted, the torture of feeling one’s family is exposed to danger just for speaking out against unjust systems. We have seen this tactic of terror time and again, but our movement will not be silenced.”
The withdrawal of police from cities has resulted in more black lives lost, not at the hands of police, but by criminal actors who use the absence of law enforcement to brazenly execute people. There has been a drastic uptick in crime, aside from the lawless riots, in our American cities. In New York those who were kept in check by law enforcement are now free to slash children randomly, mug women in broad daylight.
The demand for acknowledgement and affirmation is not something that can be met with policy measures. It is an emotional ask, that Americans across partisan lines feel solidarity with this cause. That is not a reasonable perspective, and has no recourse under law. That has not stopped municipalities from trying to comply, in the form of turning streets into massive message boards for this political party, and allowing protestors and rioters to occupy and vandalize city centres to their hearts’ content.
The withdrawal of police from cities has resulted in more black lives lost, not at the hands of police, but by criminal actors who use the absence of law enforcement to brazenly execute people. There has been a drastic uptick in crime, aside from the lawless riots, in our American cities. In New York those who were kept in check by law enforcement are now free to slash children randomly, mug women in broad daylight.
Our pain, our cries, and our need to be seen and heard resonate throughout this entire country.
We demand acknowledgment and accountability for the devaluation and dehumanization of Black life at the hands of the police.
We call for radical, sustainable solutions that affirm the prosperity of Black lives.
George Floyd’s violent death was a breaking point — an all too familiar reminder that, for Black people, law enforcement doesn’t protect or save our lives. They often threaten and take them.
Right now, Minneapolis and cities across our country are on fire, and our people are hurting — the violence against Black bodies felt in the ongoing mass disobedience, all while we grapple with a pandemic that is disproportionately affecting, infecting, and killing us.
We call for an end to the systemic racism that allows this culture of corruption to go unchecked and our lives to be taken.
We call for a national defunding of police. We demand investment in our communities and the resources to ensure Black people not only survive, but thrive. If you’re with us, add your name to the petition right now and help us spread the word.
Currently, we are fighting two deadly viruses: COVID-19 is threatening our health. White Supremacy is threatening our existence. And both are killing us every single day.
We demand real transformation NOW. Transformation that will hold law enforcement accountable for the violence they inflict, transformation of this racist system that breeds corruption, and transformation that ensures our people are not left behind.
It’s time for our cities and states to #DefundThePolice and #InvestInCommunities. Sign the petition right now, and share it with friends and family.
Image from the LA Times, May 28, 2021, captioned, “Patrisse Cullors, one of the co-founders of Black Lives Matter, marches in in Hollywood last summer. She stepped down this week as executive director of the movement’s nonprofit foundation. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)”
Most of the time, when the leader of a high-profile organization gets tangled up in controversy and suddenly announces a plan to step down, the reason is obvious. Canned explanations such as “it feels like the time is right” never ring true.
But I’m inclined to take Patrisse Cullors — tangled up in controversy though she is — mostly at her word.
Smith writes that on the evening of May 27, 2021,
the Los Angeles-based co-founder of Black Lives Matter said she would no longer serve as executive director of the nonprofit behind the movement, known as the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation.
During a livestreamed meeting with a small group of journalists and Black activists, Cullors assured everyone that her decision had been in the works for more than a year and that it shouldn’t be interpreted as “a crisis,” but “a moment of celebration.”
“I’ve created the infrastructure and the support, and the necessary bones and foundation, so that I can leave,” she told the Associated Press.
The timing of her departure has raised eyebrows, though.
For weeks, Cullors has been taking heat from right-wing racists, who insist — without evidence — that she has been stealing money from the Black Lives Matter foundation and using it, as the New York Post insinuated, for a “million-dollar real estate buying binge.”
And for months, Cullors has been taking heat from progressive Black activists, who want to know what the foundation did with the $90 million in donations it raised after George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis, and why more of it hasn’t gone to the families of those slain by police.
Cullors denies any wrongdoing or improprieties, and insists that families are, in fact, being helped.
But Cullors has built personal wealth through book deals, speaking engagements and a recent contract with Warner Bros., and that has irritated some people on both sides of the political aisle.
I have no doubt that these criticisms played some role in her decision to leave the nonprofit foundation sooner rather than later. What played a far bigger role is that the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has simply outgrown her.
This is just the natural evolution of a grass-roots organization that is suddenly no longer quite so grass-roots.
Black Lives Matter, if you’ll recall, began as a humble social media hashtag back in 2013. That was right after neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman was acquitted in the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida.
Back then, few Americans other than Black people seemed to understand or care that police — not to mention random racist vigilantes — were targeting and killing us in disproportionate numbers. Or that because of systemic racism and white supremacy, Black people were lagging in everything from access to healthcare to household income.
So entrenched was the mass delusion that millions of white people lost their minds when President Obama had the audacity to speak the truth and acknowledge that Trayvon “could have been me 35 years ago.”
In this political climate, Cullors and fellow Californians Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi helped turn Black Lives Matter into a decentralized global movement, by creating the nonprofit foundation and then licensing a network of official chapters.
The activists who showed up to protest and march after each police shooting raised awareness. The issue of racial injustice became inescapable, and Americans of all races finally began to understand and care.
A flag flies above Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington.
(Susan Walsh / Associated Press)
We saw evidence of this shift in thinking in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death, when people in cities across the country took to the streets in anger. And we saw more evidence this year when former police Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering Floyd.
Times have changed so much that our Black vice president, Kamala Harris, regularly talks about the need to address the “persistent issue of police misconduct” and “racial injustice wherever it exists” — and millions of white people agree with her.
What Black Lives Matter did, thanks to the leadership of Cullors, even as Tometi and Garza moved on to new ventures, was to normalize discussions of systemic racism and white supremacy. That was needed.
Now we need something different. More than just marches, there’s a lot of new and nuanced public policy work to be done.
We need to get rid of qualified immunity for police officers and stop cities from reacting to rising homicide rates by pouring money back into police budgets. We need to end attacks on voting rights and fix disparities in the nation’s healthcare system. We need to remove whitewashed school curricula from classrooms.
We’ve reached the obvious end of one era and the beginning of a new one. And I believe this, above all else, is why Cullors decided “the time is right” to step down.
But in her wake, Cullors also has left questions that must be answered.
What does it mean to be an activist going forward? And what does it mean to lead a movement? Does one have to be poor to do it? Or can activism include hitting the lecture circuit, writing books and, yes, making money?
I’m a firm believer that one of the hallmarks of great leadership is knowing when it’s time to step down and make way for others. Our country is filled with great leaders with great big egos who stick around too long — cough, Dianne Feinstein, cough — and put their organizations and their reputations through unnecessary drama.
On Thursday, Cullors named two new interim senior executives: Monifa Bandele, founder of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement in New York, and Makani Themba, chief strategist at Higher Ground Change Strategies in Jackson, Miss.
They will, I hope, put the nonprofit foundation on a path toward more transparency, so that when a new executive director is hired, they will be in position to do the fundraising and policy work that lies ahead.
“It’s been a powerful eight years,” Cullors said, according to theGrio. “Our organization truly has been at the vanguard of what it means to fight for Black liberation, what it means to fight for abolition. ... I’m looking forward to watching from a different point of view what the organization will continue to accomplish.”
in comparison with other organizations or entities, a plurality says Black Lives Matter has done the most to help Black people in recent years.
In the subsection headed Black Lives Matter seen as the most helpful organization for Black people in America in recent years, they display the following…
…and write that
When asked to pick which of the following organizations or entities has done the most to help Black people in the U.S. in recent years, nearly four-in-ten Black adults (39%) say it is Black Lives Matter.
Also…
Black Democrats are more likely (44%) than Black Republicans (26%) to say Black Lives Matter has done the most to help Black people in recent years. Pluralities across the ideological spectrum point to Black Lives Matter, with nearly half (47%) of Black liberals, roughly four-in-ten Black moderates (41%) and roughly three-in-ten Black conservatives (32%) doing so. Higher shares of Black registered voters (42%) than of Black adults not registered to vote (33%) agree that Black Lives Matter has done the most for Black people in the U.S. in recent years.
Black adults with at least a college degree (44%) are more likely than Black adults with some college education but no bachelor’s degree or Black adults with a high school diploma or less (37% each) to say Black Lives Matter has done the most. Across income groups, similar shares of Black adults with lower (40%), middle (40%) and upper incomes (42%) agree that Black Lives Matter has done the most.
Similar shares of Black adults across ethnicities also say Black Lives Matter has done the most to help Black people in the U.S. in recent years. Roughly four-in-ten non-Hispanic Black adults (39%), Black multiracial non-Hispanic adults (41%) and Black Hispanic adults (37%) say this. Likewise, roughly four-in-ten Black adults across age groups say Black Lives Matter has done the most in recent years.
However accurate this poll may be, one might imagine that opinions regarding BLM have shifted in light of the updates below.
UPDATE: September 1, 2022, Twenty Six BLM Chapters Sue BLM
activists from the 26 official chapters of Black Lives Matter sued their sister nonprofit, Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, alleging mismanagement, self-dealing and general financial malfeasance.
The chapters, organized under the umbrella organization Black Lives Matter Grassroots, allege that he was “a middle man turned usurper” who refused to abide by a transition plan to wind down the foundation and transfer its power back to the activists. Instead, they allege, he went “rogue” and helped steal more than $10 million in donations.
“While BLM leaders and movement workers were on the street risking their lives,” the lawsuit claims, “Mr. Bowers remained in his cushy offices devising a scheme of fraud and misrepresentation to break the implied-in-fact contract between donors and BLM.”
In a statement, Bowers and the rest of the three-person board called the accusations “slanderous and devoid of reality.”
They also wrote,
For many people — surely some of the 3,912 Black people surveyed by Pew — this family feud probably comes as something of a surprise. But the truth is that this has been brewing for months. Years even.
Let me break it down for you.
When Patrisse Cullors stepped down as executive director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation in 2021, she did so under a cloud of controversy. And it prompted a pivotal changing of the guard at the nonprofit.
Most people think of Black Lives Matter as a decentralized movement against police brutality and for racial justice. And it is — in many ways shepherded into existence by Cullors, who lives in Los Angeles, and fellow Californians Alicia Garza and Ayọ Tometi.
But BLM is also a nonprofit foundation registered with the Internal Revenue Service. It’s this legal entity that receives donations and distributes the money to activists working in the BLM Grassroots official chapters, of which L.A.’s is the first. (There also are dozens of unofficial chapters that aren’t connected to the foundation, but round out the broader BLM movement.)
It was only after George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police, launching a racial reckoning that pulled millions of Americans into the streets, that it became clear that Black Lives Matter, the foundation, was growing too big, too quickly.
Cullors was ill-prepared for the moment, she later admitted. The foundation didn’t have the staffing or the infrastructure to deal with the flood of $90 million in donations it received in 2020.
And once it became clear how much BLM had raised, it prompted a backlash, with Black activists demanding transparency. They wanted to know what had happened to the money, and why more of it hadn’t gone to its chapters and to the families of those slain by police.
Conversations that had been happening quietly — about how BLM should be structured and about who should be prioritized for donations — began to get louder and angrier.
Cullors repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. But reports that the foundation had paid $6 million for a property in Studio City didn’t help. Nor didallegations, floated without evidence by right-wing news outlets, that she had gone on an illegal “real estate buying binge” with millions of dollars in donations.
So she stepped down. And the widely respected Tides Foundation stepped in as a fiscal sponsor to help scale the BLM foundation to meet the needs of the moment, such as filing long-delayed financial paperwork with the IRS.
These changes were what led to the naming of a new board of directors — including Bowers — earlier this year with the hope of rebuilding public trust.
Meanwhile, activists with the chapters of Black Lives Matter Grassroots, led by Black Lives Matter-L.A. founder Melina Abdullah, started holding news conferences.
Out came complaints that the foundation, under Bowers, had unfairly fundraised off the activists’ work, while also locking them out of Black Lives Matter’s social media accounts and excluding them from key decision-making.
The overall message was clear: BLM Grassroots is the real Black Lives Matter, made up of the people on the ground doing the work in communities. And the BLM Global Network Foundation, controlled by consultants, isn’t.
So I’m not surprised that this escalated into a very public lawsuit. In addition to damages, the chapters are seeking a restraining order to block the foundation from using BLM’s main social media accounts and website.
Abdullah called the decision to go public with the dispute a “very difficult and painful” one.
“We know that while we can go, ‘Well, it’s the Global Network Foundation,’ the world only understands ‘Black Lives Matter,’” she told me. “We know that this hurts the reputation of Black Lives Matter.”
Abdullah said BLM Grassroots had “tried settling things quietly,” requesting private meetings with the foundation and sending letters to Bowers. “It just didn’t work,” she insisted.
Perhaps a lawsuit was ultimately necessary, if only for the sake of transparency.
If there really has been financial malfeasance, particularly anything close to what’s described in this lawsuit, the public deserves to know the truth. Besides, questions have been circling for far too long — first about Cullors, and now about Bowers and apparently Abdullah.
BLM Grassroots claims that Bowers had been self-dealing, awarding grants to his own consulting firm and charging the foundation exorbitant fees.
“The lawsuit demands that they return the people’s funds and stop impersonating Black Lives Matter,” attorney Walter Mosley said in a statement.
The foundation’s board of directors denied the claims, and instead accused Abdullah of a similar scheme, citing a letter from unnamed members of Black Lives Matter Grassroots echoing the accusation.
Abdullah denied any wrongdoing. “I suspect there probably will be more hits,” she told me.
This is messy and ugly stuff.
And, as a Black woman, I hate to see it — especially as we approach the midterm elections, when the flexing of Black political power will be critical to hanging onto a Democratic majority in Congress.
It’s hard to believe it was only two years ago that Black Lives Matter was an untainted force to be reckoned with. It was a movement that defined the political agendas and aspiring priorities of a new generation.
Back then in 2020, as the racial reckoning was unfolding, a “significant share” of Black Americans predicted that society’s sudden focus on inequality would lead to policy changes that would improve lives, according to Pew.
Now it seems we’re left with the old standbys: the NAACP. The Urban League. The Congressional Black Caucus. And Pew’s newer polls of Black Americans already suggest that a pessimism has crept in.
So, more than anything, I’m sad about what’s happening to Black Lives Matter. Sad that this is apparently the cost of transparency.
Abdullah says that BLM is “a really beautiful and powerful movement that has just fallen into the wrong hands.” We’re about to find out whether that’s true. But there will be no real winners in this family feud.
Black lives matter and always will. But I fear Black Lives Matter, the movement, will never matter as much as it once did.
Kanye Ye West took to his Instagram stories on October 4, 2022 as a response to outrage over his “White Lives Matter” shirts shown as part of his “Yeezy Season 9” fashion show. (Credit: Instagram/Kanye West)
During his show, Ye told the crowd, “This is an unmanageable situation. You can’t turn the music lower. This is a god’s dream — a dream that can’t happen without the help of God.”
Temple University professor, BET News correspondent, and Black News Tonight host Marc Lamont Hill tweeted a photo of Ye standing next to conservative commentator Candace Owens, both wearing the “White Lives Matter” shirts, calling it “disgusting, dangerous, and irresponsible.”
“Kanye West decision to wear a ‘White Lives Matter’ shirt is disgusting, dangerous, and irresponsible. Some of y’all will rush to defend him. You should ask yourselves why,” Hill wrote.
It is unclear as to whether the shirts will be available as part of Ye’s new fashion line.
Kanye West only really cares about getting attention. But even the worst attention hog can stumble across a good point: Black Lives Matter was a scam from the beginning.
“Everyone knows Black Lives Matter was a scam,” West said. He's right. The Black Lives Matter movement was built on the lie that Michael Brown was a poor, defenseless victim of a racist police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2015. The myth that he submitted and was shot anyway — “Hands up, don’t shoot” — was a lie. Physical evidence showed that Brown attacked Officer Darren Wilson and attempted to get his gun before he was shot.
Democratic politicians wanted to stoke the flames of racial division heading into the 2016 election, and so they indulged the fiction that Brown was some kind of victim or martyr. But the Justice Department, under Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama, confirmed that Wilson did nothing wrong.
Despite being built on a lie, Black Lives Matter became the hobbyhorse of Democratic politicians, celebrities, and establishment media. Whenever an unarmed black person was shot by police — it happens slightly less often than unarmed white people getting shot by police, according to the Washington Post police shooting database — the media go out of their way to make it a national story. Sometimes, they'll even make it a national story if the person in question was armed and dangerous.
Even incidents that spawned justifiable outrage were then warped to portray all police officers as racists and to insinuate that society at large is to blame for these deaths. But they aren't. Police are not racists who hunt black people.
Ignored by Black Lives Matter were the thousands of black lives that didn’t matter to activists. The WashingtonPost database lists 145 unarmed black people killed by police since 2015. Some of those unarmed cases include incidents like Brown’s, but unmentioned go all the black people murdered by non-police officers every year. In 2019 alone, for example, 7,484 black people were murdered. Democratic politicians and activists will mourn a criminal like Brown, but 7,000 black murder victims killed by non-police just don't matter.
And then, of course, there is the actual financial scam. A Washington Examinerinvestigation found that millions in funds had gone unaccounted for at the Black Lives Matter organization. California and Washington, two states run by Democrats, ordered the organization to cease all fundraising. The BLM Global Network Foundation took in $77 million in 2020, which then went on to line the pockets of its executives and their families. That $6 million mansion in Los Angeles was necessary for racial justice, don’t you see?
From the beginning, Black Lives Matter was a scam. The movement was built on a lie and was channeled toward anti-police sentiment, exploited by Democratic politicians who think stoking racism helps them and know that talking about the homicides in the cities they run would not. The financial scam was simply the icing on the cake of the political scam, and it’s a scam that Democratic politicians and liberal activists (and journalists) will continue to push without a hint of regret or introspection.
Here is a cartoon someone made to point out how someone in the West who would support BLM and Hamas would be recieved byone of the wives of a Hamas member.
In a statement posted to Instagram on Monday, Black Lives Matter Grassroots issued a statement in "solidarity with the Palestinian people" as Hamas carries out terrorist attacks against Israel, kidnapping, killing, and injuring people in the nation.
"As the world is faced with deep questions about self-determination, as we all desire and pray for a world of peace, we must stand unwaveringly on the side of the oppressed," the statement began.
"When a people have been the subject of decades of apartheid and unimaginable violence, their resistance must not be condemned, but understood as a desperate act of self-defense."
At daybreak on Saturday, Hamas entered Israel by land, sea, and air, with chaotic scenes from an outdoor dance party near Gaza showing attendees being brutally killed and kidnapped. Videos showed civilians being killed in the streets and abducted, with Hamas later stating that for every air strike launched by Israel in reaction to the invasion, it would kill one hostage.
"Black Lives Matter Grassroots stands in solidarity with our Palestinian family who are currently resisting 57 years of settler colonialism and apartheid."
"As black people continue the fight to end militarism and mass incarceration in our own communities, let us understand the resistance in Palestine as an attempt to tear down the fates of the world’s largest open air prison," the statement continued, adding that "we see clear parallels between black and Palestinian people."
"We too, understand what it means to be surveilled, dehumanized, property seized, families separated, our people criminalized and slaughtered with impunity, locked up in droves, and when we resist they call us terrorists."
The group stated that "for lasting peace to come, the entire apartheid system must be dismantled. The war on Palestinian people must cease. We call on the United States to immediately stop funding war and redirect the $4 billion in annual spending from the Israeli military to repair the damage caused by US-backed wars, military air strikes, coups, and destabilizing interventions against oppressed people around the world."
The group joins others around the country and globe that have held protests against Israel, with many celebrating the Hamas attacks.
In front of the Sydney Opera House on Monday night, chants of "gas the Jews" were heard by hundreds of protestors waving Palestinian flags.
31 pro-Palestinian student groups at Harvard have released a joint statement declaring that Israel was "entirely responsible" for the deadly attacks.
Pro-Hamas protests have occurred in San Francisco, Seattle, DC, and New York City, with protestors chanting "free Palestine" and "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."
As James Woods points out, the support of those terrorists from the top leadership of BLM is nothing new.
UPDATE:
“BLM executive” Shalomyah Bowers is “accused of "syphoning" more than $10 million from donors”
Image by CNN, captioned, “Shalomyah Bowers pictured in Atlanta in May.”
Image from LA Times, “D’Zhane Parker, Cicley Gay and Shalomyah Bowers, from left, defend their work as the board of directors of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. (Brynn Anderson / Associated Press)”
Image from ABC 15 / WPDE, captioned, “Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors sits for a photo after an interview with The Associated Press in Los Angeles, Wednesday, April 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)”.
Image from Associated Press, captioned, “FILE - A person holds their fist in the air, April 20, 2021, in Washington at Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House after the verdict in the murder trial against former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was announced in Minneapolis. On Tuesday, June 27, 2023, a California judge dismissed a civil lawsuit that grassroots racial justice activists from around the U.S. brought last summer against a foundation with stewardship of the Black Lives Matter movement’s charitable endowment worth tens of millions of dollars. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)”
A California judge has dismissed a civil lawsuit that grassroots racial justice activists from around the U.S. brought last summer against a foundation with stewardship of the Black Lives Matter movement’s charitable endowment worth tens of millions of dollars.
Black Lives Matter Grassroots Inc., a collective of organizers, claimed Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation Inc. had raised donations off the work of city-based BLM chapter, then defrauded the public and shut activists out of decision-making.
In dismissing the lawsuit, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Bowick sided with the foundation’s lawyers, who argued that local BLM activists failed to prove they were entitled to the raised funds or that the foundation’s leaders had siphoned off millions of dollars for nefarious purposes, among other unproven allegations.
The fraud claim against the foundation was, in part, based on the alleged misrepresentation of a $6 million Los Angeles-area compound purchased with donated funds. The foundation says the property, which includes a home with six bedrooms and bathrooms, a swimming pool, a soundstage and office space, is used as a campus for a Black artists fellowship. BLM chapter organizers say the donated funds were never intended for use that way.
If the fraud allegations were “premised upon misrepresentation rather than concealment, the complaint fails to sufficiently allege the how, when, where, to whom, and by what means the representations were tendered,” Bowick said in a court order issued Tuesday.
Melina Abdullah, co-founder of BLM Grassroots, said Thursday that the group was “stunned and dismayed” by the court’s dismissal order. A lawyer for the local organizers said an appeal would be filed “immediately.”
“As always, the work of Black Lives Matter continues, regardless of the court ruling,” Abdullah said in a statement.
In response to the ruling, the BLM foundation said it also will move forward with its work.
“We have stayed true to our principles, philanthropic duties, and organizational focus despite countless blatant fabrications, misrepresentations, and innuendos of misdeeds lodged against us,” reads a statement the foundation released Wednesday night.
It filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit under California’s Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation statute, or anti-SLAPP. The law is meant to prevent plaintiffs from using the courts as a way to intimidate people and organizations that are exercising their free-speech rights.
Justin Sanders, an attorney for BLM Grassroots, said the legal basis of the ruling is a “terrible example of the letter and not the spirit of the law being followed.”
The local organizers’ complaint, filed in state Superior Court last September, had singled out foundation board secretary Shalomyah Bowers and his firm, Bowers Consulting. Bowers’s firm was brought in by BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors, before her resignation as head of the organization in May 2021, to help the organization build out infrastructure.
The foundation had been financially supporting BLM chapters in the U.S. and Canada, but it desperately needed help amid an unprecedented wave of monetary support and public attention, following the murder of George Floyd by police in 2020. After receiving $90 million in donations between 2020 and 2021 — and spending $37 million on grants, real estate, consultants, and other expenses — the foundation invested $32 million in stocks.
Its 2020-2021 IRS filings show Bowers’s firm received $2.1 million to provide operational support, including staffing, fundraising and other key services – that was the lion’s share of what the organization spent on consultants in that fiscal year. But local organizers failed to prove in court that either Bowers or his firm siphoned several millions of dollars in fees from donated funds, as their lawsuit alleged.
These specific allegations against Bowers were “confusing and unintelligible,” Bowick wrote in the court’s dismissal order.
A separate statement issued by Bowers’s firm said the BLM board secretary was deciding how to seek accountability for how the lawsuit affected him and his business.
In a public letter to BLM Grassroots released after the court ruling, the foundation opened the door for mending the relationship with local BLM organizers.
“The problems we face as a community are too great for us to be divided,” the letter reads. “The only way to deal with the critical issues of police brutality, ending state sanctioned violence, economic prosperity for Black people, and achieving a world where Black people across the Diaspora thrive, experience joy, and are not defined by their struggles, is if we heal the past and re-imagine the future.”
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Individuals or organizations can use the RICO Act to file civil claims against racketeering activities performed as an ongoing criminal enterprise.
If your business or property suffers at the hands of a criminal organization, such as a corporation or bank, you may have a RICO claim.
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) is a federal law designed to combat organized crime in the United States. The law was passed in 1970 and was meant to be the “ultimate hitman” in mob prosecutions.
The federal civil RICO statute (18 U.S. Code § 1964) says a plaintiff who brings a successful civil RICO action “shall recover threefold the damages he sustains and the cost of the suit, including a reasonable attorney’s fee.”
Under the Florida Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act, a plaintiff can file a civil lawsuit against defendant(s) who engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity. Notably, a plaintiff that files a successful civil RICO claim can seek treble damages.
Organizations like Black Lives Matter, the Catholic Church, Anti-Defamation League, corporations like Disney, other 501(c)(3) Tax-exempt Corporations, and teacher unions should be completely shut down with the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
Under the law, the meaning of racketeering activity is set out at 18 U.S.C. § 1961: Any violation of state statutes against gambling, murder, kidnapping, extortion, arson, robbery, bribery, dealing in obscene matter, or dealing in a controlled substance or listed chemical (as defined in the Controlled Substances Act); . . .
Individuals or organizations can use the RICO Act to file civil claims against racketeering activities performed as an ongoing criminal enterprise.
If your business or property suffers at the hands of a criminal organization, such as a corporation or bank, you may have a RICO claim.
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) is a federal law designed to combat organized crime in the United States. The law was passed in 1970 and was meant to be the “ultimate hitman” in mob prosecutions.
The federal civil RICO statute (18 U.S. Code § 1964) says a plaintiff who brings a successful civil RICO action “shall recover threefold the damages he sustains and the cost of the suit, including a reasonable attorney’s fee.”
Under the Florida Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) Act, a plaintiff can file a civil lawsuit against defendant(s) who engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity. Notably, a plaintiff that files a successful civil RICO claim can seek treble damages.
Organizations like Black Lives Matter, the Catholic Church, Anti-Defamation League, corporations like Disney, other 501(c)(3) Tax-exempt Corporations, and teacher unions should be completely shut down with the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
Under the law, the meaning of racketeering activity is set out at 18 U.S.C. § 1961: Any violation of state statutes against gambling, murder, kidnapping, extortion, arson, robbery, bribery, dealing in obscene matter, or dealing in a controlled substance or listed chemical (as defined in the Controlled Substances Act); . . .
https://cwspangle.substack.com/i/138167431/disney-most-of-hollywood-and-the-catholic-church-should-be-completely-shut-down-with-the-rico-act