Black Lives Matter has evaded scrutiny for far too long - by Jawad Iqbal

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Black Lives Matter has evaded scrutiny for far too long - by Jawad Iqbal

Post by armchairlawyer »

It is not racist to criticise or question the actions of the campaign group Black Lives Matter (BLM). This statement of the obvious needs to be made because, for many people, uncritical support for BLM is the only way to brandish their anti-racist credentials, somehow implying that anyone who doesn’t fall into line is guilty of racism. This has meant that valid and important questions about the organisation, including how much money has been raised and how it is spent, as well as the personal wealth of its leaders, have been deemed too dangerous to ask.

Newly released tax records filed by BLM show what happens when transparency is sacrificed on the altar of political correctness. BLM raised $90 million in 2020, the year of widespread racial justice protests over the police killing of George Floyd. It paid out just $26 million in grants to families and community groups.
It then went on a property spree, including buying a $6 million mansion in Los Angeles, complete with swimming pool, studio and office space.

Patrisse Cullors, the co-founder of BLM, who stepped down in May last year amid growing questions about her finances, has always denied any impropriety. She initially rebutted claims that she used the mansion for anything other than business. It later emerged that she had hosted private parties there. It has now been revealed that the father of her child was paid just under $1 million to help “produce live events” and other unspecified “creative services”. Her brother received more than $840,000 for providing security services.

The story of BLM that emerges from these belated financial disclosures is less one of racial justice, more that of a rudderless and leaderless organisation plagued by scandal and internal conflict. When Cullors resigned, no one seemed to be left in charge. According to its website, BLM now has a new leadership structure consisting of a board of three people.

It remains a mystery what it plans to do with the millions sitting in its bank accounts. Meanwhile, it continues to offer up laughable excuses for its failings: any request for total transparency apparently “makes BLM more vulnerable”, and delays in handing out funds are part of a wider project to “decolonise philanthropy”, whatever that means.

The suspicion remains that the reluctance early on to question the organisation’s record and performance stemmed from special treatment. People who should have known better were scared of being labelled racists by BLM supporters for asking tough questions. The consequences of this cowardice are plain to see.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/blac ... -7n3jk2czk
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Re: Black Lives Matter has evaded scrutiny for far too long - by Jawad Iqbal

Post by armchairlawyer »

Another piece on BLM from The Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/blac ... -5xw2cscz8

The $6 million compound in a leafy neighbourhood of Los Angeles could belong to any one of the many celebrities who call Studio City home.

With its six bedrooms and bathrooms, swimming pool and a soundstage, the sprawling £4.8 million mansion is hidden from the passing traffic by hedges, and metal gates keep out unwelcome guests.

However the property is not owned by a film star or musician. Rather the name on the deed is that of the Black Lives Matter Global Network, which claims that it was bought as a campus for a black artists fellowship and that that is what the complex is being used for.

This week there was little sign of a bustling arts space, however. Instead the property appeared deserted, with multiple attempts to rouse any occupants going unanswered.

Critics argue the gated compound is emblematic of the waste and corruption at the heart of a campaign group created to ease the plight of black people everywhere, but which has instead enriched a select few.

Tax documents released this week reveal that the group has $42 million in assets following the flood of donations it received after the death of George Floyd in Minnesota in 2020.

The filing also showed that the co-founder of Black Lives Matter (BLM), Patrisse Cullors, paid a company owned by the father of her child almost $970,000 to “produce live events” and other “creative services”.

Her brother was paid more than $840,000 for providing security services, further inviting criticism of the group’s operations.

Cullors, an activist who was previously subjected to scrutiny after it emerged that she had a property portfolio worth $3.2 million, has denied any impropriety and claims she is a victim of “right-wing media”.

Her defence has not dampened the anger of some grassroots organisers, however.

Lisa Simpson became disillusioned with BLM after her son was shot and killed by police in Los Angeles in 2016. She believes that the organisation’s leaders are more interested in financial gain than helping families.

She said that many of the group’s wealthy white donors hand their money over to ease their conscience and do not pay close attention to where the cash ends up.

Simpson, 53, said: “This is what I’ve learnt since I’ve been in this fight and my son got killed. A lot of people want to right their wrongs so they’re not even paying attention to the entity itself.

“They just want to be able to say, ‘Well, I donated’. But where did your money go? Because you didn’t donate to the cause, you donated to their cause.”

Simpson, who manages a petrol station, said she was outraged to read of Black Lives Matter leaders buying property portfolios while she struggled with homelessness. “I don’t even want the money because it’s bigger than the money. I want them out of the fight. They have destroyed families, they cause nothing but hurt and pain. I don’t understand how anybody would think that they should get paid [because of] the death of somebody else’s kids.”

BLM began in 2013 after the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the shooting of the black teenager Trayvon Martin, and soon inspired protesters in the US, Canada and Britain, including activists who disrupted flights at London’s City Airport in 2016.

The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation was officially incorporated as a charity in 2017 but the cause became a household name and received an avalanche of donations following the death of Floyd while he was being restrained by US police officers, and racial justice protests swept across the world.

The sudden hike in BLM’s profile brought the group intense scrutiny and according to one expert its management since then has been “unusual and concerning”.

Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, a professor at Notre Dame Law School in Indiana who specialises in non-profit groups, said the foundations’s filings presented a series of “yellow flags”.

While they “raised concerns that maybe things were done improperly, [the filings] don’t definitely establish anything was done that was actually legally wrong”.

The foundation should expand its three-member board to avoid further accusations of impropriety, Mayer suggested, and open up paid roles to external candidates rather than handing them to family members or others with ties to the organisation’s leadership.

“Having just three directors is unusual, unless it’s a private foundation where all the money’s coming from those people, like the [Bill & Melinda] Gates Foundation, for example,” he said. “But that’s not the situation with this money. It’s a public charity, the money is coming from presumably thousands of donors, if not tens of thousands of donors, or hundreds of thousands of donors.

“And you want a lot of people on the board who can pay attention to things and can decide where to invest the 30-plus million dollars.”

Following the latest wave of criticism, Cullors issued a strident defence of herself and BLM, the organisation she resigned from last year.

When “white guilt money” started pouring in, she said, the group was hopelessly unprepared and mistakes made then are now being “weaponised” against her.

Cullors, 38, told MSNBC’s Into America podcast that the Los Angeles mansion was an investment for Black Lives Matter, and that she had wanted to keep the purchase a secret due to security fears.

“The minute we shared the information with the public . . . the right-wing media would do what they always do and they always did,” she said. “Because the right-wing media doesn’t have any sense or care for people’s security or safety.”

Simpson, who still holds police responsible for the death of her 18-year-old son Richard Risher, is unmoved by Cullors’ explanation, along with other attempted justifications by BLM leaders.

She said: “They came in here with a hidden agenda when they first stepped in this fight. They never were in it for the deaths of our men, women and children. So I’ve got a question for the world: do black lives really matter?”

Black Lives Matter was contacted for comment.
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Re: Black Lives Matter has evaded scrutiny for far too long - by Jawad Iqbal

Post by Chad Sexington »

Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks must be spinning in their graves at the thought of todays black Americans and their current choice of champions of their ‘cause’.
Fucking Al Sharpton and the BLM shower etc, couldn’t care less about about the people they supposedly represent, it’s all about race baiting and lining their own pockets.
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Re: Black Lives Matter has evaded scrutiny for far too long - by Jawad Iqbal

Post by GMJS-CEO »

The idea of Black Lives Matter and what it means to some of the supporters may be pure but the legal entity that it spawned is just another in a long line of corrupt ones that capitalize on the moment and care little about the cause.

Corrupt companies, corrupt NGOs, corrupt churches, corrupt politicians - it's the way of the world and always has been, at least people are becoming more aware of it even if that awareness won't lead to real change, at least not in our lifetimes.
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Re: Black Lives Matter has evaded scrutiny for far too long - by Jawad Iqbal

Post by tightenupvolume1 »

I am assuming it is a registered charity, not sure about the rules in the USA but I think this fraud would be difficult to do in the UK, we have a charity regulator that would be on this.
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Re: Black Lives Matter has evaded scrutiny for far too long - by Jawad Iqbal

Post by Alex »

All lives matter. Black lives a bit less than others, suck it up.
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Re: Black Lives Matter has evaded scrutiny for far too long - by Jawad Iqbal

Post by Big Daikon »

Alex wrote: Sat May 21, 2022 12:46 am All lives matter.
Apparently, this combination of words is terribly racist. Insensitive, even.
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Re: Black Lives Matter has evaded scrutiny for far too long - by Jawad Iqbal

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Re: Black Lives Matter has evaded scrutiny for far too long - by Jawad Iqbal

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tightenupvolume1 wrote: Sat May 21, 2022 3:42 am Image
"Disgusting, threatening message"

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Re: Black Lives Matter has evaded scrutiny for far too long - by Jawad Iqbal

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