After the Co-Founder Patrisse Cullors of New York City’s Black Lives Matter chapter bought a house in Topanga Canyon, Los Angeles, for $1.4 million along with three others, suspicions arose, and an independent investigation into the organization’s finances was called into action, the New York Post reported.
Following the death of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter foundation received $90 million in donations over the summer and support in protests all over the country, according to The American Press.
Whether or not Cullors is paid by Black Lives Matter is causing a rift among activists.
Hawk Newsome, head of the Black Lives Matter Greater New York City, urged that Cullors’ finances be investigated.
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‘If you go around calling yourself a socialist, you have to ask how much of her own personal money is going to charitable causes,’ Newsome told the 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. We need black firms and black accountants to go in there and find out where the money is going,” he continued.
The publication reported that Cullors embraced activism and Marxism at a young age. “It started the year I turned twelve,” she stated. “That was the year that I learned that being black and poor defined me more than being bright and hopeful and ready.”
Cullors also set up a BLM Global Network, a for-profit that is not required to disclose how much it spends or pays its executives, which is critiqued by many.
Vallejo for Social Justice, a movement that describes itself as ‘Abolition + Socialist collective in the struggle for liberation, self-determination, & poor, working-class solidarity,’ said it was an ill-judged flaunting of wealth, according to the Daily Mail.
“We’re talking generational wealth off of the deaths & struggle of Black folks here,’ they tweeted.
“Justice Teams Network & BLM founder paid $1.4 million for a home.”
“This past week, we bought a cot for our unhoused Black elder friend to keep him off the ground.”
We’re talking generational wealth off of the deaths & struggle of Black folks here. Justice Teams Network & BLM founder paid $1.4 million dollars for a home.
This past week we bought a cot for our unhoused Black elder friend to keep him off the ground.https://t.co/orEhhItocE
— Vallejo For Racial Justice (@vallejojustice) April 9, 2021
