Former BLM Leader Denies Wrongdoing, Admits Property Use

APR 7 2022·Updated OCT 11 2022

Story

Image credit: AP [via New York Post]

The Facts

Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF), said in an AP interview that neither she nor anyone else in BLMGNF's leadership misused donations, but she did admit that she had used the organization's $6M property for a "gathering" and her son's birthday party.
Independent
Last month, Cullors rebutted a report detailing BLMGNF's purchase of a Southern California home in Oct. 2020 as part of a "racist and sexist" attack on the group.
New York Post
New York Magazine released the report early last month, claiming that BLMGNF had used donations to secretly buy a large house, known internally as "Campus."
Intelligencer
The property's original price was $3.1M, but the purchase was transferred to a shell company controlled by BLMGNF, and the price increased to $5.8M after only a few days.
New York Post
The report also claimed that the group's leaders were enjoying lucrative sums of money while on-the-ground activists were suffering from a lack of resources and sometimes even poverty.
Intelligencer
Cullors stepped down from her position as BLMGNF's executive director in May 2021, not long after an earlier round of reports appeared documenting her own personal real estate purchases.
Complex

Sources Split

LEFT

CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

CENTER

PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Right narrative

Cullors lied and should face the consequences. She admitted that BLMGNF wasn't prepared to deal with the surge of donations following George Floyd, and that she used the property for personal leisure. To top it off, there's been no new leadership, making BLMGNF seem to purely exist to exploit social tensions.

Daily Mail

Left narrative

Cullors is being made a victim of a right-wing smear campaign. Countless nonprofits and companies have expensive offices or headquarters, and this is no different.