“Trained Marxist” Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Patrisse Cullors Resigns After Her Real Estate Wealth Revealed
Resigned from her position of Executive Director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) after six years. Cullors has faced intense scrutiny over the past several months for her fiscal management of the organization, as well as her prominent property buying sprees.
By Jeff Reynolds | Legal Insurrection | Thursday, May 27, 2021 at 7:36 p.m.
On Thursday afternoon, Patrisse Cullors, the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, resigned from her position of Executive Director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) after six years. Cullors has faced intense scrutiny over the past several months for her fiscal management of the organization, as well as her prominent property buying sprees.
The Daily Mail reports:
[Cullors] insists her resignation has been in the works for more than a year and has nothing to do with the personal attacks she has faced.
‘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 told the Associated Press.
Last month, she described the criticism as ‘racist and sexist’ smears deliberately put out by the ‘right-wing media’.
BLMGNF put out a statement with a positive spin on the development:
“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.”
The two Senior Executives will lead BLMGNF until the organization finds a new permanent team. In the interim, BLMGNF remains committed to combating and countering acts of violence, creating space for Black imagination and innovation, and centering Black joy through arts and culture.
However, recent controversies may have had more to do with the organizational reshuffling. Cullors, who famously referred to herself as a trained Marxist, has come under fire in 2021 over reports of her fiscal mismanagement of BLMGNF, including using her paid position as executive director to hire a consulting firm she happens to own. Of course, any criticism of Cullors is met with charges of racism and white supremacy. Samantha Mandeles reported for Legal Insurrection last month:
Still, Cullors has dismissed much of this criticism as a distraction, engineered by the right-wing, from the quest to end “white supremacy”; she recently posted a statement on Instagram in which she condemned an unspecified article about her collection of luxury homes as “false and defamatory”, an example of “doxxing”, and a well-worn “tactic of terror” often dispatched against “Black activists”.
As the organization has grown in size and influence, fiscal matters have taken on greater importance. I wrote recently for Legal Insurrection,
The Black Lives Matter movement grew in 2020 to encompasses several tax exempt organizations, a new PAC, and chapters across the United States, while raking in tens of millions of dollars and engaging in grant making activity to like minded organizations around the country.
Originally founded in 2013, and later formed as a 501(c)3 fiscally sponsored by the Tides Center, last year the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) made major impacts in education, elections, and on America’s streets. Their plans for 2021 and beyond are even bigger.
Contrary to Cullors’ claims, the criticism and questions didn’t originate exclusively from conservatives. Again from LI’s Mandeles:
Years of financial opacity and the recent controversies have reportedly pushed other Black Lives Matter leaders to call for an investigation into the inner workings of Cullors’ behemoth umbrella group, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. Moreover, at least 10 state and local chapters of the organization have publicly split off from the larger group, and published scathing critiques of Cullors. One such critique accuses the BLMGNF of “stealing money from stolen lives”.
Did Cullors resign after years of planning, or did she resign under pressure due to fiscal mismanagement?
Jeff Reynolds is the author of the book, “Behind the Curtain: Inside the Network of Progressive Billionaires and Their Campaign to Undermine Democracy,” available at www.WhoOwnsTheDems.com. Jeff hosts a podcast at anchor.fm/BehindTheCurtain. You can follow him on Twitter @ChargerJeff, on Parler at @RealJeffReynolds, and on Gab at @RealJeffReynolds.
