Michael Brown Sr.’s son Michael, was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo in 2014, an event that sparked the spread of the BLM movement. Now the Senior Brown has joined forces with others, dubbed the BLM 10 Plus movement, which seeks to understand where nearly 100 million dollars raised by BLM last year is being spent. Comprised of the original 10 Black Lives Matter chapters, the group is demanding to know where and how funds raised by BLM are being used; on what, and by whom.
The controversy within Black Lives Matter seems to have been sparked by the recent revelations of co-founder Patrisse Cullors’s extravagant real estate spending spree. A story we covered here Friday:
According to the Daily Mail, Black Lives Matter took in $90 million in 2020 and was left with a balance sheet of $60 million by January 2021. Around $8 million was spent on expenses, including staffing costs with the other $20 million donated to local chapters and nonprofits.
The BLM10 group complains that the amounts received by the families of black victims at the hands of police have been far from equitable compared to how much money BLM has taken in over the years.
On Friday, the group released this statement:
“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.” the statement read.
“The BLM 10 Plus continues the call for transparency and most importantly, for principled accountability in movement infrastructures.”
They went on, “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.”
