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Big Tech’s censorship continues to run rampant, and this time it relates to a story about Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors.
Khan-Cullors, who is a self-described Marxist artist-activist – in fact, in her book When They Call You A Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir she reveals being influenced ideologically and intellectually by Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong- recently purchased a home for $1.4 million in Topanga, a Los Angeles neighborhood in the Santa Monica Mountains that is unmistakably white. Its black population is less than 2 percent.
As the activist is emblematic of Black Lives Matter, a radical leftist organization that started in 2013 and claims to fight “systemic racism,” the capitalist system and “white privilege”, many critics on social media seized on the revelation of the acquisition of the valuable home to question Patrisse Khan-Cullors for double-standard speech.
For example, African-American sports journalist Jason Whitlock, who became a strong critic of BLM, wrote a tweet noting that “Black Lives Matter Founder buys $1.4 million home in Topanga, which has a black population of 1.4%. She’s with her people.”
The journalist added a link to his post that redirected to an article on his blog The Dirt, the media outlet that published the exclusive on the Black Lives Matter co-founder’s brand new home.
After sending the Tweet, Twitter suspended Jason Whitlock’s account explaining that the journalist violated the social platform’s “rules against publishing private information.”
It’s not allowed to post about Black Lives Matter co-founder’s home
Whitlock’s account, which has more than 433,000 followers, was not the only one suspended. Venezuelan journalist Orlando Avendaño, editor-in-chief of El American and a critic of socialist policies and movements, was also censored for publishing information from The Dirt.
Avendaño only reviewed the news as follows: “Co-founder of Black Lives Matter bought a $1.4 million home in Topanga. Black population in the neighborhood is 1.4%.” Twitter not only suspended his account, but deleted his tweet (which had hundreds of retweets) on the grounds that it had “violated their rules of use.”
Black Lives Matter and the profitable business of fighting racism
After the exclusive came out in The Dirt about the $1.4 million Topanga home purchased by Patrisse Khan-Cullors, the New York Post brought out another exclusive alluding to the same property, but adding that the Black Lives Matter co-founder bought 3 other homes in addition to that one after 2016. The total value of the 4 properties is about $3.2 million.
One of the properties reviewed by the Post is in the Inglewood neighborhood, the cost at the time was $510,000 and today would cost about $800,000. Another of the houses is south of Los Angeles, she bought it for $ 590,000 and today is valued at about $ 720,000. On the other hand, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter also acquired last year a ranch in rural Georgia for the price of $ 415,000 dollars, this property features “a private airplane hangar with a studio apartment above it.”
Acquiring four houses in less than five years is synonymous with being immersed in a lucrative activity, to say the least. And Black Lives Matter is.
The exponential media jump that the Marxist movement had last year was remarkable. Sports leagues around the world began to adopt the name of the organization and its symbols. Important global brands did the same and all this had an impact on donations. According to The Associated Press, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, known for managing BLM’s revenue, “brought in just over $90 million last year.”
“This marks the first time in the movement’s nearly eight-year history that BLM leaders have revealed a detailed look at their finances,” AP reported. “The foundation’s coffers and influence grew immensely following the May 2020 death of George Floyd, a Black man whose last breaths under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer sparked protests across the U.S. and around the world.”
However, it wasn’t all positive for Black Lives Matter. The AP’s own story outlined the call for more transparency from the group #BLM10, which is part of a group of BLM.
“#BLM10 claimed most chapters have received little to no financial resources from the BLM movement since its launch in 2013. That has had adverse consequences for the scope of their organizing work. The chapters are simply asking for an equal say in ‘this thing that our names are attached to, that they are doing in our names,’ said April Goggans, organizer of Black Lives Matter DC, which is part of the #BLM10 along with groups in Indianapolis, Oklahoma City, San Diego, Hudson Valley, New York, and elsewhere.”
According to the report, records showed that some chapters belonging to BLM received “multiple rounds of funding in amounts ranging between $800 and $69,000, going back as far as 2016. The #BLM10 said the amounts given have been far from equitable when compared to how much BLM has raised over the years.”
Criticism over the handling of Black Lives Matter’s finances generated that even the movement’s own co-founders admitted that they have not been clear with the handling of revenues.
Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón is a journalist at El American specializing in the areas of American politics and media analysis // Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón es periodista de El American especializado en las áreas de política americana y análisis de medios de comunicación.
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