ince receiving $100 million plus in
funding in 2016, the Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of organizations and groups aimed to set a collective strategic policy agenda to create racial equity for Black people across the United States, has come under increased scrutiny regarding property purchases and potential
financial mismanagement within the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation. While these incidents should be investigated and any impropriety addressed legally, financially, and organizationally, some people are using these incidents to question their own commitment to the Black Lives Matter movement. Rapper Kanye West and conservative influencer Candace Owens taking a picture in sweatshirts with “
White Lives Matter” written on the back during Paris Fashion Week is one such example of people using alleged impropriety of individuals to justify vilifying an entire movement focused on racial equity.
@SociologistRay
If the behavior of some organizational administrators leads individuals to question whether to support the notion that Black Lives Matter, then they were most likely waiting to leave the pursuit of racial equity at the first sign of trouble. It is a fact that many organizations and companies encounter administrative and financial issues during periods of expansion and downsizing. There were allegations of
money fraud by Bed, Bath, and Beyond leadership, yet people didn’t start returning blenders, cutting boards, and espresso machines.
So, why do we seem to critique Black organizations more harshly? Our collective appetite to justify criticizing Black organizations speaks to how deeply embedded
anti-Blackness is within the cultural pallet of the United States. In the case of West and Owens and those who think like them, there are a series of misses that need to be addressed. While unsolicited martyrs have become symbols of the Black Lives Matter movement,
one key statistic drives it—Black people are 3.5 times more likely than white people to be killed by police when they are unarmed and not attacking, and as in the case of Trayvon Martin, more likely to be
profiled because of race.