Black lives matter tweet rest in power1/27/2024 “So then we ask questions, and we are told no answers.”Ĭullors declined comment. Nothing,” said Yahné Ndgo, a lead organizer with Black Lives Matter Philadelphia. “We didn’t have an opportunity to agree to discuss. Those discussions were not productive, they say. But they were encouraged to wait and discuss the issues with Cullors privately. Members have brought this up as early as 2016 and frustrated chapters planned to go public with their grievances months ago. Since Black Lives Matter formed in 2013, the chapters complained they’ve received scant financial support, despite repeated promises. They also said there’s a lack of transparency over money the movement has raised and how chapters can access it. Cullors is chief among their complaints, they said, arguing she made a power grab when she appointed herself executive director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network. The 10 chapters that signed the letter, the self-proclaimed #BLM10, laid out a half-dozen points of contention and long-standing grievances. “With a willingness to do hard work that would put us at risk, we expected that the central organizational entity … would support us chapters in our efforts to build communally.” “We became chapters of Black Lives Matter as radical Black organizers embracing a collective vision for Black people engaging in the protracted struggle for our lives against police terrorism,” 10 local chapters wrote in an open letter last week. After forming the PAC, which helped fund its ad campaigns to mobilize Black voters, it formalized its third arm, Black Lives Matter Grassroots, to focus entirely on activism.īut the spotlight on these changes is now exposing fractures in its operation and leadership structure as its ground troops go public with their complaints. With Cullors at its helm, Black Lives Matter this year positioned itself as a new leader in activism and politics at the forefront of the national reckoning on race. And how its leaders respond to the call for accountability could have major implications for Black Lives Matter’s long-term influence - just as an administration potentially more sympathetic to its goals comes into power. The fallout follows an all-too familiar trajectory of other grassroots movements. People also assume that when actions are made, that national has the support and agreement from this collective that what they’re saying is representative of us. “People assume that that money is distributed to local chapters. “There’s been intentional erasure,” of local activists, said Sheri Dickerson, lead organizer with Black Lives Matter Oklahoma City. And as the Black Lives Matter movement grows in influence, with millions in donations and celebrity endorsements, local organizers argue they’re the ones in the streets pushing for change - and they’re not getting their due. Local Black Lives Matter activists say national leaders cut them off from funding and decision-making, leaving them broke and taking the movement in a direction with which they fundamentally disagree. Two of its three co-founders are no longer affiliated with the movement - even as they continue to represent Black Lives Matter on TV. The operations of Black Lives Matter have always been opaque, with thousands of members and dozens of affiliates. That’s a move, that, to some, signaled a rebuke of its “leaderful” structure, which gave every member an equal say and kept anyone - including a founder - from overreaching. They are furious that Patrisse Cullors, its remaining co-founder, assumed the role of executive director of the group and made these decisions without their input. Ten local chapters are severing ties with the Black Lives Matter Global Network, as the national leadership is known. The moves have triggered mutiny in the ranks.
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