Black Lives Matter (BLM) is all but finished at this point in 2022. It’s not that the statement stopped being a thing, or that the protestors are hanging it up. Rather, it’s the fact that they have become an enigma of sorts. From one side of their mouth, they are crying about equality for all, and the other is talking to other members of their leadership about how to spend their millions. A move that many are upset about…
The summer months of 2020 are when they got going with the fundraising. They had money pouring in, as well as volunteers lining up. From the black gentleman who remembers watching Muhammad Ali refuse to be drafted to the college freshman filled with white guilt despite his family arriving here but two generations ago. People were anxious to give all they could to help.
Naturally, the BLM leadership was all too eager to accept. Problem was, that nobody had a clue on what to do besides bail out protestors when they saw fit.
Nobody had real experience in non-profit fundraising, spending, or finances. However, they did know how to license the name and make money off of merchandise (the NBA protest shirts were monumental for their bottom line), and naturally, corruption occurred. With interesting real estate purchases by Patrisse Cullors and other unique purchases by her BLM colleagues, there was a lot to be said for what they were doing.
Cullors has some interesting real estate purchases in LA and Toronto for herself. BLM, on the other hand, has a $6 million house in LA’s Studio City. Anytime they are asked about it, they just brush it off like it matters not.
It does matter, though. No matter how you see the organization, its message, or its founders, they had something organic when they started. They had something that most Americans could stand behind, at least somewhat. Much like the Tea Party movement, Occupy Wall Street, or #MeToo. Each of these organizations (right or wrong) started as a grassroots movement, with real hopes, dreams, and aspirations.
The greed of the people at the top, the corruption by the people in the middle, and the ignorance of the people providing all the support from the bottom kept feeding and boosting each of these organizations.
Much like their predecessors, BLM just grew too fast, and just like the others, nobody thought to higher outside accountants, advisors, and staff. They instead handed out gifts, contracts, and opportunities to their family and friends. That’s not to say they didn’t do good things along the way, but everything became a shred of what it could have and should have been for their community.
Without enough sense but a lot of dollars, they’ll soon be gone from the American landscape. A distant memory, at best. Their legacy is cemented in faux activism. They won’t be remembered for the positive they did but rather for all the division and hatred the group inspired when the protests would turn into riots and for the violence visited upon shop owners simply for existing.
They will be remembered for the quick lies about their LA real estate. They claimed it was for the organization, for artists, and for its people to stay safe. But, they could never name someone who had visited and been given a room. It’s a shame, too.
Had they spent more time engaging in dialog and not shouting, maybe they would have realized that they were more in line with MAGA than any of their members would recognize. It’s almost comical how much each group has in common, but how little either side would acknowledge it.
