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As the BLM movement has grown and the money rolled in, the “trained Marxists” that run the show have invested heavily in real estate.
BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors has purchased multiple houses in the United States and even bought a mansion in Canada through an affiliated group run by her spouse.
Cullors had been so heavily criticized for what is clearly hypocrisy that she stepped back from the organization in 2021.
- ‘Trained Marxist’ Co-Founder Of BLM Now Has 4 Homes Thanks To Activism And…Capitalism!
- BLM Transferred MILLIONS To Charity Run By Co-Founder’s Wife To Buy A Mansion In Canada
- BLM Co-Founder, Patrisse Cullors, Is Officially On Her Way Out — Here’s The 411
But now it appears it wasn’t just Cullors buying up houses — despite calls for greater transparency into the organization’s spending, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) purchased a lavish home in Southern California using funds that were intended as donations for their cause.
New York Magazine was the first to break the story.
On a sunny day late last spring, three leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement — Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Melina Abdullah — sat around a table on the patio of an expensive house in Southern California. The women were recording a YouTube video to mark the first anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, and they discussed their racial-justice work and the difficulties they had faced over the year…
…None of the women acknowledged the house behind them. It’s far from a box, with more than 6,500 square feet, more than half a dozen bedrooms and bathrooms, several fireplaces, a soundstage, a pool and bungalow, and parking for more than 20 cars, according to real-estate listings. The California property was purchased for nearly $6 million in cash in October 2020 with money that had been donated to BLMGNF.
The transaction has not been previously reported, and Black Lives Matter’s leadership had hoped to keep the house’s existence a secret. Documents, emails, and other communications I’ve seen about the luxury property’s purchase and day-to-day operation suggest that it has been handled in ways that blur, or cross, boundaries between the charity and private companies owned by some of its leaders. It creates the impression that money donated to the cause of racial justice has been spent in ways that benefit the leaders of Black Lives Matter personally.
At the time of the filming of the YouTube video that has now been set to “private”, Cullors had been blasted in the media for purchasing multiple homes and was pushing back on the criticism.
She characterized the reporting of her four (known) homes as right-wing media attacks.
“It’s because we’re powerful, because we are winning. It’s because we are threatening the establishment, we’re threatening white supremacy,” said Cullors.
Much like the mansion purchased in Toronto, this SoCal home was supposed to be a “hub” for creatives to make content and further promote the movement.
Cullors used it several times in her videos as she built her brand. NYMag notes that “videos from Cullors’s personal YouTube channel also appear to match images of the house’s interior shown in real-estate listings.”
On March 30, I asked the organization questions about the house, which is known internally as “Campus.” Afterward, leaders circulated an internal strategy memo with possible responses, ranging from “Can we kill the story?” to “Our angle — needs to be to deflate ownership of the property.” The memo includes bullet points explaining that “Campus is part of cultural arm of the org — potentially as an ‘influencer house,’ where abolition+ based content is produced by artists & creatives.” Another bullet is headed “Accounting/990 modifications” and reads in part: “need to first make sure it’s legally okay to use as we plan to use it.” The memo also describes the property as a “safehouse” for leaders whose safety has been threatened. The two notions — that the house is simultaneously a confidential refuge and a place for broadcasting to the widest possible audience — are somewhat in tension. The memo notes: “Holes in security story: Use in public YT videos.”
Source: New York Magazine
Well, that certainly answers some of the questions about where all the BLM donations are going.
In the last couple of years, the BLMGNF has made tens of millions of dollars in donations thanks to great branding and the hype from corporations, politicians, and the left-leaning media.
BLMGNF enjoyed a particularly lucrative year after the death of George Floyd. The organization had raised over $90 million. Of that, $8.4 million was spent on operating expenses, and $21.7 million was handed out to other organizations in the form of grants. That left $60 million just sitting in their coffers.
Now, it’s unclear what this “non-profit” organization is doing with the boatload of cash on hand.
It’s not going to the loosely (if at all) affiliated local groups that bear the same brand name.
As a New York Magazine article in January 2022 points out, the national organization is able to fundraise and founders are offered book deals and thousands in speaking fees, but the smaller, grassroots organizations are often cut off from the donations.
Some local activists contend that little of the money raised at the national level makes its way to their organizations or to the families of Black people killed by police. In November 2020, ten chapters of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation issued a public call for greater financial accountability. “For years there has been inquiry regarding the financial operations of BLMGNF and no acceptable process of either public or internal transparency about the unknown millions of dollars donated to BLMGNF, which has certainly increased during this time of pandemic and rebellion,” the chapters’ statement read.
Those smaller groups have been calling for greater transparency on BLMGNF’s spending since 2016.
Mothers like Samaria Rice have been critical about the Black Lives Matter organization profiting off of their dead sons.
The “trained Marxists” at Black Lives Matter are even being criticized by their fellow socialists.
From the World Socialist Web Site:
Black Lives Matter and other identity-based movements represent the bourgeoisie and a privileged layer of the middle class that seeks personal gain through the promotion of the politics of race and gender.
When it comes to BLMGNF, where is the lie in that?
Cullors, Garza, and Abdullah have certainly benefited from the fame.
Meanwhile, BLM’s “defund the police” activism has wreaked havoc as crime rates skyrocketed in 2020 and 2021 — especially in black communities.
Corporations and leftist politicians pushing BLM as an agent of “social change” have a lot to answer for.
But not as much as the BLM leaders who may have jeopardized the 501(c)(3) standing of the BLMGNF because of the “intermingling of resources” with Cullors and outside organizations.
Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, a professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School who specializes in nonprofits, said the details of the house’s management deserve closer scrutiny. If there are problems with the group’s tax filings, there could be civil and criminal liabilities for the people and organizations involved. He said that investigations by state and federal agencies could be warranted. “They’re all indicators that the money may not be going where it’s supposed to be going,” he says.
Source: NY Magazine (Emphasis Added)
Maybe instead of studying Marxism, Cullors should have studied bookkeeping.
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