BLM founder Patrisse Cullors resigns
The woman who sits atop 60 million dollars’ worth of donated funds, after the unexplained departure of her ostensibly charitable organization’s co-founders, failing to file legally required financial disclosures, and buying a multi-million dollar real estate portfolio, surprised everyone yesterday by announcing her resignation. Claiming that it has nothing to do with criticism of her multi-million-dollar real estate buying spree and complaints of financially stiff-arming other BLM groups, Patrisse Cullors:
“announced Thursday that she is stepping down as executive director of the movement’s foundation. She decried what she called a smear campaign from a far-right group, but said neither that nor recent criticism from other Black organizers influenced her departure.
Patrisse Cullors, who has been at the helm of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation for nearly six years, said she is leaving to focus on other projects, including the upcoming release of her second book and a multiyear TV development deal with Warner Bros Her last day with the foundation is Friday. (snip)
The 37-year-old activist said her resignation has been in the works for more than a year and has nothing to do with the personal attacks she has faced from far-right groups or any dissension within the movement. (Al Jazeera)
That must be why her announcement came out of the blue and surprised everyone.
Here is a five-minute video she released announcing her move:
While Cullors co-founded BLM with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi in the wake of George Zimmerman’s not guilty verdict in the Trayvon Martin death, she was the only one who remained with the foundation that took in $90 million last year, in the wake of George Floyd’s death while in police custody.
AP spoke with Cullors about her move:
“I’ve created the infrastructure and the support, and the necessary bones and foundation, so that I can leave,” Cullors told The Associated Press. “It feels like the time is right.” (snip)
“Those were right-wing attacks that tried to discredit my character, and I don’t operate off of what the right thinks about me,” Cullors said.
As she departs, the foundation is bringing aboard two new interim senior executives to help steer it in the immediate future: Monifa Bandele, a longtime BLM organizer and founder of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement in New York City, and Makani Themba, an early backer of the BLM movement and chief strategist at Higher Ground Change Strategies in Jackson, Mississippi.
“I think both of them come with not only a wealth of movement experience, but also a wealth of executive experience,” Cullors said.
The BLM foundation revealed to the AP in February that it took in just over $90 million last year, following the May 2020 murder of George Floyd, a Black man whose last breaths under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer inspired protests globally. The foundation said it ended 2020 with a balance of more than $60 million, after spending nearly a quarter of its assets on operating expenses, grants to Black-led organizations and other charitable giving. (snip)
In 2020, the BLM foundation spun off its network of chapters as a sister collective called BLM Grassroots, so that it could build out its capacity as a philanthropic organization. Although many groups use “Black Lives Matter” or “BLM” in their names, less than a dozen are considered affiliates of the chapter network.
There is considerable dissatisfaction over the disposition of the millions of dollars raised. The UK Daily Mail reports:
The head of New York City's BLM chapter called for an independent investigation into the organization's finances after revelations about the property portfolio surfaced.
'If you go around calling yourself a socialist, you have to ask how much of her own personal money is going to charitable causes,' BLM organizer Hawk Newsome told The New York Post.
'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.' (snip)
Cullors' co-founders have left, and last summer Cullors assumed leadership of the Black Lives Matter Global Network - the national group that oversees the local chapters of the loosely-arranged movement. (snip)
BLM's Global Network filters its donations through a group called Thousand Currents, Insider reported in June - which made it even more complicated to trace the cash.
Solome Lemma, executive director of Thousand Currents, told the site: 'Donations to BLM are restricted donations to support the activities of BLM.'
The New York Post reports:
Critics of the foundation contend more of that money should have gone to the families of Black victims of police brutality who have been unable to access the resources needed to deal with their trauma and loss.
“That is the most tragic aspect,” said the Rev. T. Sheri Dickerson, president of an Oklahoma City BLM chapter and a representative of the #BLM10, a national group of organizers that has publicly criticized the foundation over funding and transparency.
“I know some of (the families) are feeling exploited, their pain exploited, and that’s not something that I ever want to be affiliated with,” Dickerson said.
Cullors and the foundation have said they do support families without making public announcements or disclosing dollar amounts.
Adding to the difficulty in tracing the financial flows of the millions of dollars donated to BLM is the organization’s non-compliance with financial disclosure laws and its fleeing the jurisdiction of California, as Fox News reported a month ago:
A social justice nonprofit chaired by Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors is moving to operate in other states as it avoids filing required financial documents in California, filings show.
Cullors’ nonprofit, Dignity and Power Now, was warned by California’s attorney general’s office in March over its failure to file all the required financial documents for 2019. According to state records, Dignity and Power Now is currently delinquent in California, where it is incorporated.
"A delinquent organization may not engage in any activity for which registration is required, including solicitation or disbursing of charitable assets," reads an earlier warning sent to Cullors’ nonprofit from California’s Registry of Charitable Trusts, which was first reported by the Daily Signal.
But as the nonprofit remains in a delinquent state, records show that the organization has been active as it continues sidestepping its required financial forms. Just weeks after receiving its latest warning, Dignity and Power Now submitted an Application for Certificate of Authority on April 1 with North Carolina’s secretary of state’s office to conduct business in the state. Cullors is listed as an officer in the documents. (snip)
Dignity and Power Now, which formed in 2012, has failed to file an audited financial statement to accompany the group’s 2019 tax forms, which did not include the required signature of an officer.
Then there is the question of her co-founders and the other groups sporting the BLM name. In In December 2020, Politico headlined, “Black Lives Matter power grab sets off internal revolt.”
The Black Lives Matter movement is buckling under the strain of its own success, with tensions rising between local chapters and national leaders over the group’s goals, direction — and money. (snip)
After a summer of protests that made Black Lives Matter a household name, those atop the movement are making a series of moves to alter its power structure: organizing a political action committee, forming corporate partnerships, adding a third organizing arm and demanding an audience with President-elect Joe Biden. (snip)
Two of its three co-founders are no longer affiliated with the movement — even as they continue to represent Black Lives Matter on TV. Local Black Lives Matter activists say national leaders cut them off from funding and decision-making, leaving them broke and taking the movement in a direction with which they fundamentally disagree. And as the Black Lives Matter movement grows in influence, with millions in donations and celebrity endorsements, local organizers argue they’re the ones in the streets pushing for change — and they’re not getting their due.
The operations of Black Lives Matter have always been opaque, with thousands of members and dozens of affiliates. Two of its three co-founders are no longer affiliated with the movement — even as they continue to represent Black Lives Matter on TV
(snip)
“There's been intentional erasure,” of local activists, said Sheri Dickerson, lead organizer with Black Lives Matter Oklahoma City. “People assume that that money is distributed to local chapters. That is not the case. People also assume that when actions are made, that national [leadership] has the support and agreement from this collective that what they're saying is representative of us. And that's certainly not the case.”
There are a lot of people who want a closer look at the money that has flowed to BLM an d the rise of Patrisse Cullors’s net worth. She has a multi-year deal to produce content for Warner Brothers, one best-seller book and another book on the way, a consulting firm and has worked as a public speaker. It may well be that she has earned every penny that she invested in real estate. But the failures to meet regulatory requirements for financial disclosure are a red flag that justifies close examination of the books. Maybe Cullors wants a certain disrtance from what may follow.
Biden’s State Department signals that black lives don’t matter
One year after the death of George Floyd, Biden’s State Department has authorized American embassies to fly the Black Lives Matter flag to promote the Marxist organization. The department’s memo stated that it “supports the use of the term 'Black Lives Matter' in messaging content, speeches, and other diplomatic engagements with foreign audiences to advance racial equity and access to justice on May 25 and beyond.”
With the Biden family’s Communist China connections and the red roots of the Black Lives Matter movement, this action should not be surprising.
Black Lives Matters was launched in 2013 by radical leftist activists Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi who work for several front groups. BLM was co-opted by a number of radical groups including the Communist Party USA and Democratic Socialists of America.
Garza is a self-described “queer” social-justice activist , an admirer of convicted cop killer Assata Shakur (Joanne Chesimard) and former Black Panther Angela Davis. Cullors was mentored by former Weather Underground terrorist Eric Mann. In a 2015 interview she said, “Myself and Alicia in particular are trained organizers. We are trained Marxists.” Tometi, the daughter of illegal immigrants from Nigeria, is a long-time open supporter of socialist Venezuela dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Cullors is a follower of Chinese communist dictator Mao Zedong, whose Cultural Revolution resulted in the greatest mass murder in recorded history, outpacing Hitler and Stalin. Cullors’ admiration of Mao signals the influence of his theory on the Black Power movement in the United States.
BLM’s ideological basis can be found in Critical Race Theory (CRT) which all elements of class in Marxist theory with race – whites are oppressive class that must be overthrown and crushed by the black revolutionary proletariat. America is a permanently racist nation and all whites are inherently racist.
Black Lives Matter’s mission is to “dismantle the patriarchy” and “disrupt the Western prescribed nuclear family structure requirement” aligns with the Neo-Marxist agenda to collapse the building block of society -- the nuclear family -- with the state supporting single parent families.
On the FOX Sports 1 show, former NFL all-pro defensive end Marcellus Wiley discussed why BLM is detrimental to black families and personal success. He supported his view with data about children raised in a single-parent home: “[They] are 5 times more likely to commit suicide, 6 times more likely to be in poverty, 9 times more likely to drop out of high school, 10 times more likely to abuse chemical substances, 14 times more likely to commit rape, 20 times more likely to end up in prison, 32 times more likely to run away from home.”
This Marxist revolution raging in America is from top-down, rather than bottom-up. Democrat leaders promote BLM yet are silent on the violence perpetrated by BLM supporters. The elite from big corporations have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the organization to support blacks yet they ignore the assaults, murders and defunding of police and the destruction of poor inner-city neighborhoods and businesses by BLM riots. They are silent on the direct negative impact on poor blacks who don’t have bodyguards like the rich or high walls around their hovels to protect their families.
These elites don’t seem concerned that their donations are not going to help black people but rather enriching the founders of BLM, who have been in the news with their purchases of multiple million-dollar residences. (Here are a few of the corporate sponsors.)
Despite the leftist claim that America is systemically racist, it’s quite evident that black lives really don’t matter to the BLM or to the megarich.
By authorizing the flying of the Black Lives Matter flag at American embassies around the globe, Biden and his administration have sent a clear signal to the world that they do not care either.
Carole Hornsby Haynes, Ph.D. is a national education policy analyst and curriculum specialist, historian, business owner, and classical pianist. www.drcarolehhaynes.com chaynes@drcarolehhaynes.com
Image: Skylar Sorensen
Black Lives Matter Co-founder Patrisse Cullors Resigns
Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors resigned on Thursday, following controversy about her personal wealth — though she, and the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF), denied that had anything to do with it.
In a statement, BLMGNF said:
Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) today announced that BLM Co-Founder and current Executive Director, Patrisse Cullors, would be transitioning from her role, and named two Senior Executives to support the organization.
…
Cullors leaves BLMGNF in a strong position to support grassroots, art/culture work and policy work that invests in the future of Black lives. During her tenure, Cullors helped the organization reach several milestones …
“With smart, experienced and committed people supporting the organization during this transition, I know that BLMGNF is in good hands,” said Cullors. “The foundation’s agenda remains the same — eradicate white supremacy and build life-affirming institutions. Between the two Senior Executives and BLM Grassroots Co-Director Melina Abdullah, who is an original member of BLM and co-founder of its first chapter in Los Angeles, their immense talent will build a future where Black lives do more than matter — they will truly thrive.”
Last year, after the presidential election, local Black Lives Matter activists began asking questions about the movement’s finances, after it raised massive amounts of cash from corporate America, but little filtered down to local communities.
Last month, real estate website Dirt.com reported that the “37-year-old social justice visionary” noted that Cullors (also known by her married, hyphenated surname, Khan-Cullors) had bought a $1.4 million compound in the Los Angeles enclave of Topanga. The New York Post reported that the Topanga home was one of four Cullors owned, which included a Georgia ranch with an airplane hangar. (Cullors, like many other prominent Black Lives Matter leaders, is a “trained Marxist.”)
The revelations prompted more protest from activists, and spurred `calls for an independent investigation of the movement’s finances. Cullors said she bought the homes to support family, as Breitbart News reported:
She replied that “never taken a salary from the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation,” and that she had other sources of income from her work as a college professor, as a TV producer, an author, and a YouTube content creator.
(In a statement, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation said she had not received any compensation from the group since 2019, though she had received $120,000 from the group since 2013 for performing specific duties.)
She added: “Organizers should get paid for the work that they do. They should get paid a living wage. And the fact that the right-wing media is trying to create hysteria around my spending is, frankly, racist and sexist.”
The Associated Press reported that Cullors vigorously denied that her resignation had anything to do with the controversy over her personal wealth or the movement’s finances: “Those were right-wing attacks that tried to discredit my character, and I don’t operate off of what the right thinks about me,” she reportedly said.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new novel, Joubert Park, tells the story of a Jewish family in South Africa at the dawn of the apartheid era. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, recounts the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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