In the George Orwell book Animal Farm, the farm animals successfully revolt against the cruel human overlord and his minions. The pigs, being more intelligent and selfish, seize leadership and gradually return the other animals to their previous low status.
The pigs either rewrite the rules or employ insulting lawyerly sophistries to declare that a violation of both the word and spirit of the commandment is actually no violation at all. The pigs claim any detractor is a traitor working with the humans.
I recalled this fiction when I ran across a news story about a similar set of pigs evidently working assiduously to enrich themselves from the blood, sweat, and tears of those they apparently regard as less than. 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.
“For me, the hardest moments have been the right-wing-media machine just leveraging literally all its weight against me, against our movement, against BLM the organization,” Cullors said. “I’m some weeks out now from a lot of the noise, so I have more perspective, right? While I was in it, I was in survival mode.” She was referring to an April 2021 article in the New York Post that revealed her purchase of four homes for nearly $3 million.
The disclosures had contributed to the idea that there is a disturbing gap between the fortunes of the movement’s most visible figures and on-the-ground activists across the country, and Cullors resigned as executive director of Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation on May 27, within a few days of the patio chat.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.
Tory Russell, a prominent activist in Ferguson, Missouri, said that he felt depressed when he learned about about the California property. “It’s a waste of resources,” he said. While Black Lives Matter at the national level is flush, he’s seen local activists fall into poverty and become homeless. Last year, Russell put out a video with Michael Brown Sr., whose son was killed by a police officer in August 2014, demanding money from BLMGNF to help people living in Ferguson, and he’s since been struggling to raise $1.2 million for a community center. “They shouldn’t be walking around no Black people, no Black communities,” he said of the organization’s leaders. “They should be somewhere in shame.”
Everyone should become as successful and as wealthy as he or she can. But when you raise money off of the broken and dead bodies of Black men and boys then you must ensure the money goes to the impacted Black families and to voter initiatives/political strategies that strive to ensure that racist judges, cops, and politicians are stripped of the ability to harm the Black community.
You should not be getting rich from fundraising!!!
Your spending should be transparent. Your paperwork should be perfect. Every dollar donated should be accounted for.
The monies raised from community outrage over brutality and death visited upon Black men and boys shouldn't be going to feminist and LGBTQ causes. And the monies certainly shouldn't be used for hidden million dollar real estate purchasing sprees.
Trust is essential to any relationship. This is doubly so when money is involved. If I donate money for a particular cause, I want my money used for that cause. If you want my money because you want a better life, that's a different ask with a different answer.
Idiots and grifters discredit #BLM and corrode the reputation of present and future Black justice movements. It becomes more difficult for Black people to trust one another with their time, resources, and money. I wouldn't be surprised if we later learn that some of these people were government agents.
Now the people who have gotten rich from #BLM won't care, especially because they were not the primary demographic impacted by police violence, but people who aren't interested in #BuyingLesbiansMansions must find different avenues to channel activism and financial support for change.
