Whatever good intentions there may have originally been behind Black Lives Matter, the organization has devolved into a scam. It is far past time for Washington to remove its slogan from outside the White House.
Founded in 2013 after Trayvon Martin was shot while assaulting a neighborhood watch coordinator, BLM was little more than a hashtag and a website until George Floyd’s murder in May 2020. That’s when the money spigot erupted. Corporations and celebrities became desperate to have their brands linked with BLM and sent tens of millions of dollars to the organization.
Unfortunately, that money appears to have been, at best, wasted — and more likely used to enrich a select few people involved with the BLM brand. After reports that she used BLM funds to buy herself millions of dollars’ worth of real estate, BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors resigned from the organization last May.
The two activists she named as successors say they were never actually hired by the organization and have no idea who is in charge or what has happened to the more than $60 million in assets it possesses.
Following reports that BLM had not filed the legally required paperwork to maintain its status as an active nonprofit group, the states of California and Washington ordered the organization to stop fundraising. The liberal fundraising behemoth ActBlue also dropped BLM from its fundraising pages. According to nonprofit law experts, BLM is also out of compliance with the laws of Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Maine, Maryland, and Virginia.
If all of these states now see that BLM is a scam, then why is Washington clinging to the ugly block lettering of the ad hoc landmark it created in the organization’s honor, Black Lives Matter Plaza?
The answer appears to be tourist money. Mayor Muriel Bowser has essentially turned the plaza into a social justice-themed tourist trap that is prominently displayed on the city’s Visit DC tourism website. Is there a similar policy page dedicated to all of Bowser’s proposals for an actual “Black Lives Matter” agenda? Nope. But if you want a list of 20-plus black chefs and black-owned restaurants and bars in Washington, at least the Guide to Black Lives Matter Plaza webpage has you covered.
It now appears that the BLM organization is going to survive its current leadership crisis — but at the cost of what little integrity it had left. Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Marc Elias appears to have control over the organization and its finances now. His Elias Law Group has been listed in multiple legal filings as the organization’s legal address.
We have no doubt that every penny people donated to BLM will be spent improving black lives and not enriching Elias and other Clintonworld cronies. Ha, just kidding!
There are so many better ways for Washington to honor its rich civil rights heritage than to maintain that unsightly yellow block lettering right outside the White House. If this mayor is too personally invested, perhaps the next mayor can remove the eyesore.
