Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors is once again getting backlash over money and BLM finances after purchasing a $1.4-plus million home in the rustic and predominately white Los Angeles community of Topanga Canyon.
Kahn-Cullors, 37, is a graduate of University of California, Los Angeles and University of Southern California who has been married for about five years to social activist and amateur boxer Janaya Khan, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto, Dirt reported.
Kahn-Cullors created the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag in 2013 after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the 2012 shooting of Black teenager Trayvon Martin. The BLM movement grew tremendously during worldwide protests of George Floyd’s killing in the summer of 2020 by Minneapolis police. Donations poured in for BLM. After pressure, the organization finally revealed it had raised $90 million in 2020.
Since launching BLM, Kahn-Cullors has been busy making deals. She published a book, “When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir,” in 2018. And last fall she inked a deal with Warner Bros. TV to create original programming that raises Black voices on streaming services and traditional TV channels, The Los Angeles Times reported.
With BLM growing in presence and financial power, Khan-Cullors was called on the carpet for what some have called grifting off of Black tragedy for financial gain. Due to disagreements over the running of the organization, co-founder Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi split from BLM.
Now the purchase of the $1.4 million-dollar home has resulted in more backlash against Khan-Cullors.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 74: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin returns for a new season of the GHOGH podcast to discuss Bitcoin, bubbles, and Biden. He talks about the risk factors for Bitcoin as an investment asset including origin risk, speculative market structure, regulatory, and environment. Are broader financial markets in a massive speculative bubble?
People are questioning why and how Kahn-Cullors is shelling out so much for a home.
“When we say Black organizations don’t have to be transparent & perform audits on where the money goes & what the money produces, we can participate in structural harm,” The Moguldom Nation founder Jamarlin Martin tweeted. “A soft bigotry: Black America is not worthy of accountability & outcome measurement. ‘Just give the money’”.
Why Kahn-Cullors might have chosen to buy in Topanga Canyon raised a lot of questions.
“For somebody that claims to love Black people, it’s kinda strange that she chose a place to live that’s practically devoid of Black people,” a Twitter user wrote.
Some accused her of cashing in on BLM. “She capitalized on that ‘Injustice against Black People’ bag. They’ve been scamming since day 1,” another tweeted.
“This is blood money,” charged another.
Kahn-Cullors’s new home is not quite 2,400 square feet with a three-bedroom, two-bath main house and a separate one-bedroom, one-bath guest apartment, private entry and a living room with a kitchenette, according to Dirt.
The average price for a home in Topanga is $1,419,592, according to Zillow.
