BLM infighting escalates over demands for 'accountability' and 'transparency'
Black Lives Matter is disintegrating into squabbling over money, even though it won't frankly admit the base motivation behind the fights that have erupted and escalated yesterday. Democrats always project their own plans and values onto their enemies. So when Rep. Ilhan Omar tweeted, "It's all about the Benjamins, baby," intending to allege that "Israel's allies in American politics were motivated by money rather than principle," she inadvertently exposed the real motivations of many of her major allies.
Monica Showalter prophetically saw Black Lives Matter starting to fall apart over money almost two weeks ago, and events yesterday confirmed her prediction. Jon Street of Fox News reports on the grassroots local chapters that are demanding "accountability" and "transparency" in the wake of earlier revelations about the lavish spending of co-founder Patrisse Cullors. The reactions escalated, as the news that she has spent at least $35,000 on fencing and an electronic gate for that luxury compound became first known in a UK Daily Mail article by Judith Ishkanian:
Last month workers were spotted in the early morning hours trenching mounds of dirt in front of and around the property in preparation for a formidable barrier to wrap around the home. (snip)
'It will have an electronic gate at the driveway portion, a walk up door, and call box, and other safety measures, cameras - you know, to keep the riff raff out,' he said.
On Tuesday, photos of the property reveal the fencing and gate project was near completion.
If Cullors hoped that publicly announcing that she was stepping down from her role would quiet criticism, she is wrong. Morgan Phillips of Fox News reported:
But Cullors' [sic] move to step down is not enough to satisfy a growing number of BLM chapters' demand for change within the organization. Referring to initial calls for more transparency and accountability from the "BLM 10," the name for the ten original BLM chapters, a new group, deemed the "BLM 10 Plus" is now speaking out.
"The number of chapters that have aligned in support of our statement has nearly doubled. Some of these chapters have made their own statements echoing not only our call to accountability but also our experiences as we sought transparency, democracy, and internal transformation for years," a statement released by the BLM 10 Plus on Friday reads.
A Google search turns up no mentions of this imbroglio in the agitprop media — only in "right-wing" sites. The statement issued yesterday by BLM Ten Plus indicated bitterness over attempts to repress their earlier demands for accountability and the addition of a symbolically important voice in their demands:
With no other viable options available, on November 30, 2020 the BLM10 released a public statement calling for accountability from the Network and the affiliated Foundation. Following the release of this statement, chapter names were promptly removed from the BLMGN website. As a direct result of the release of our public statement, the demands for accountability grew. Families of those who were lost to police violence spoke out and also demanded accountability, including Michael Brown Sr., Samaria Rice, and Lisa Simpson. The number of chapters that have aligned in support of our statement has nearly doubled. Some of these chapters have made their own statements echoing not only our call to accountability but also our experiences as we sought transparency, democracy, and internal transformation for years. Organizers outside of Black Lives Matter have also stepped forward making official statements and through social media expressing the harm they have experienced by BLMGNF.
The BLM 10 Plus continues the call for transparency and most importantly, for principled accountability in movement infrastructures. The issues we've highlighted within the Black Lives Matter movement are not unique to this group or to people of color. Grassroots movements have been co-opted across the globe and it is our intention to be a part of the collective creating processes based on integrity so that we, nor any other activist or advocate, encounters these avoidable issues in the future.
Amazingly, there is no mention of money in this statement at all. It's as if Marxists are embarrassed and ashamed to be squabbling over money and, instead, use vacuous and vague demands when money is clearly what is at stake. As Monica reminded us almost two weeks ago, it's not just the real estate and security compound; other money has been at stake since the beginning of the controversies:
It probably started with the mother of Breonna Taylor, a young woman who died in a police shooting, who criticized the organization for its exploitative ways. That may have surprised some people, but her argument was logical and believable: she said the organization not only did nothing to help the rest of Taylor's family, but raised millions of dollars for itself through the use of her daughter's name, while sharing none of its largesse. (snip)
[S]he also spent cash on Malibu conferences and spa stays, which were on BLM's dime. (snip)
[S]he funneled money to her baby daddy, more than $150,000, to a man who apparently couldn't even create a credible website, let alone a credible internet video.
I don't expect the turmoil to cease. The closer they get to communism (and remember that Cullors advertised herself as a "trained Marxist" when she founded BLM in the wake of Michael Brown being fatally shot when he tried to grab a policeman's gun), the greater the odds that leftists will turn on each other. Because Marxism is utopian, its adherents believe that their version of its dogma will solve all of humanity's problems. This makes anyone who stands in their way an enemy of humanity's salvation and perfection. There can be no honest differences when the stakes are ultimate. Jesse Kelly yesterday noted this tendency toward fratricide is universal among them:
The great advantage of the communist is his unending aggression.
— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) June 11, 2021
The great disadvantage of the communist is that aggression gets turned on other communists. 100% of the time. https://t.co/NBTH0OyYRT
Photo credit: John Lucia CC BY 2.0 license.
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