A Black Lives Matter organization is being criticized over a report that they used donations to purchase a $6 million home in southern California and tried to hide it from the public.
The purchase was first reported by New York Magazine which obtained internal memos from the Black Lives Matter leaders trying to kill the story.
According to the report, activists used money donated to the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation to buy the 6,500 sq. ft building in cash in October 2020.
“Our angle — needs to be to deflate ownership of the property,” read one internal email after BLM was asked by New York Magazine to comment on the story.
In response to a request from New York Magazine, BLM board member Shalomyah Bowers said they purchased the property “with the intention for it to serve as housing and studio space for recipients of the Black Joy Creators Fellowship.”
The Black Joy Creators Fellowship was reportedly announced the next day as providing “recording resources and dedicated space for Black creatives to launch content online and in real life focused on abolition, healing justice, urban agriculture and food justice, pop culture, activism, and politics.”
The report detailed the labyrinthine legal steps the organization took to try to hide the purchase of the home from the public.
Other activists are upset at the use of the donation funds.
“It’s a waste of resources,” said Tory Russell, an activist in Ferguson, Missouri, who had asked the BLMGNF for funds for a community center.
Black Lives Matter has been criticized in the past for similarly questionable real estate purchases. In May 2021, BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors resigned her leadership position after a firestorm of outrage over several million dollar home purchases.
Cullors, who is a self-professed Marxist, blamed the outrage on the right-wing media.
“Those were right-wing attacks that tried to discredit my character, and I don’t operate off of what the right thinks about me,” she said at the time.
Here’s more about the controversial purchase:
BLM Secretly Bought A $6M SoCal HYPE HOUSE
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