(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrice Cullors—the primary resident of a swanky, $6 million California mansion—claimed that, after recent scrutiny from tax officials, the act of filling out required financial documentation for nonprofit status had become a traumatic event, the Washington Examiner reported.
“It is such a trip now to hear the term ‘990,’” Cullors said Friday during an event at the Vashon Center for the Arts in Washington state. “I’m, like, ugh. It’s, like, triggering.”
Cullors continued to play the victim, saying BLM activists’ lives were endangered by the requirement to publicly disclose what they have done with the money they received.
“This doesn’t seem safe for us, this 990 structure—this nonprofit system structure,” Cullors said. “This is, like, deeply unsafe. This is being literally weaponized against us, against the people we work with.”
She also argued that the 990 request will damage morale and called the common tax procedure an attack leading to “deep, like, resistance and trauma.”
Even blue states like California have insisted that BLM cease fundraising operations until it can provide additional transparency on how those funds were being spent.
The group has yet to account for the $90 million it raised in 2020, amid the racially-charged aftermath of George Floyd’s death.
BLM, which first came to prominence after the death of Trayvon Martin during the Obama administration, suddenly found itself the focal point for outraged onlookers who were desperate to channel their vast resources and liberal guilt into the activist effort.
“I actually did not know what 990s were before all of this happened,” Cullors claimed, an apparent reference to BLM’s lack of leadership and financial transparency.
But as time went on, many began to suspect that the group was not serving the black community at large so much as it was serving its own interests.
Cullors was forced to step down last year after revelations that she had purchased several luxory homes worth millions of dollars.
Among them was a 6,500-square-foot Malibu mansion that she used a third-party acquaintance to purchase for $5.8 million in October 2020. Although it was primarily used by her, BLM leaders have since dubbed it the “Creator’s House,” claiming it to be a sort of public space for artists.
That’s why Creator’s House was purchased – to provide a space for Black folks to share their gifts with the world and hone their craft as they see fit, under the conditions that work best for them and outside systems of oppression in creative industries.
— Black Lives Matter (@Blklivesmatter) April 11, 2022
The group also promised increased fiscal transparency.
BLMGNF is working diligently to increase operations transparency, including an internal audit, tightening compliance operations, and creating a new board to help steer the organization to its next evolution.
— Black Lives Matter (@Blklivesmatter) April 11, 2022
But Cullors claimed the media was simply attacking her in order to learn how to take down black-led activist groups, and that any accusations of financial mismanagement were racist.
“The fact that a reputable publication would allow a reporter, with a proven and very public bias against me and other Black leaders, to write a piece filled with misinformation, innuendo and incendiary opinions, is disheartening and unacceptable,” she wrote on Instagram.
