Patrisse Khan-Cullors is a 37-year-old social activist, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, and self-styled “Marxist leader” of BLM. Apparently what she does is very lucrative, too—after she went on a “real estate spending spree” running into the millions, a new report provides evidence that she made over a hundred thousand dollars in 2019 as chairwoman of a jail reform initiative.
Cullors is listed as “principal officer” and “business owner” on payments made by Reform LA to the consulting firm Janaya and Patrisse Consulting, which Cullors started with her spouse and fellow BLM co-founder Janaya Khan. Cullors “raked in upwards of $20,000 a month as the chairwoman” of the jail reform initiative, according to the New York Post, and campaign finance data shows that Reform LA paid Cullors and Khan’s firm $191,000 altogether in 2019.
Now, fellow BLM activists are demanding an investigation into Cullors.
This news comes hard on the heels of Cullors’ recent “spending spree” when she spent $3.2 million dollars on “four high-end homes. . .in the US alone.” One of these houses was a $1.4 million home in a highly exclusive LA neighborhood near the Malibu beaches, where 88% of the other residents are white. Cullors also signed a “multi-platform deal” in October 2020 with Warner Bros. Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, of which Cullors is a leader, received more than $90 million dollars in donations last year, “despite the movement being splintered by ongoing feuds about the lack of funding.”
Many people excoriated Cullors (who is using BLM to complain about what she claims are the oppressions and gross injustices against blacks in America) on social media for her recent massive purchases, some questioning whether Cullors was not using BLM’s funds for personal profit. Cullors responded on Instagram by claiming to hold fast to high ideals, “This movement began as, and will always remain, a love letter to black people. Three words: Black Lives Matter, serve as a reminder to Black people that we are human and deserve to live vibrant and full lives. . .I’ve worked multiple jobs across many organizations my entire life. I’m also a published author, writer, producer, professor, public speaker, and performance artist. I love my work in all of these areas and I work hard to provide for my family.”
She denied absolutely that she used any BLM funds for herself and tried to turn the criticism of her actions into racism, complaining, “This effort to discredit and harass me and my family is not new nor is it acceptable. It has taken away from where the focus should be — ending white supremacy. You may not like or agree with me. I have definitely made mistakes. I own up to that. I apologize for the mistakes I have made and I work hard at practicing my abolitionist values.”
Black Lives Matter put out an even more emphatic statement. Without addressing people’s concerns that a woman who constantly complains that black people aren’t allowed to succeed in America is buying $1.4 million dollar houses in exclusive white neighborhoods, the statement baldly attributed all attacks on Cullors to “a tradition of terror by white supremacists against black activists.”
This is not only a refusal actually to address legitimate concerns, but it is simply ridiculous to pretend that everyone critiquing Cullors must be a white supremacist. Black sports journalist and Outkick partner Jason Whitlock, for instance, “roast(ed)” Cullors for her expensive house purchases on Twitter, and had his account suspended in consequence. Referring to demands from Twitter that he delete his post about Cullors in order to get his account re-activated, Whitlock said that he refused, joking, “I’m still in Twitter jail because I won’t post bail. . .I did nothing wrong.”
Do not even suggest that Cullors could be a hypocrite, or you must be a white supremacist (regardless of ethnicity or motive)—because any criticism of someone bearing the aura of leftist self-righteousness must be due only to an evil bias in the one criticizing. This is the world BLM’s leadership wants to create.
