The millionaire marxist ! (From The Telegraph)
Black Lives Matter co-founder quits role amid controversy over $3m property portfolio
Patrisse Cullors cited the release of her second book and a TV deal as the cause of her departure
A Black Lives Matter co-founder has resigned from her role as executive director amid controversy over her $3m property portfolio.
Patrisse Cullors, who founded the racial justice movement in 2013, is a self-described “Marxist” but faced criticism after it was reported last month that she owns four properties, including a $1.4m house in Malibu and a ranch in Georgia.
The 37-year-old says she was the victim of “right-wing attacks that tried to discredit my character,” and that her resignation had long been planned because she has a new book and television deal.
"I've created the infrastructure and the support, and the necessary bones and foundation, so that I can leave," she said.
"It feels like the time is right.
“I don’t operate off of what the right thinks about me,” she added as she denied that finances had any relation to her resignation.
BLM said she had "received a total of $120,000 since the organisation's inception” following the 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Florida.
This was for duties such as serving as spokesperson and engaging in political education work.
Claims that she had misused donations to purchase property were strongly denied and last month she told the Black News Channel that suggestions of financial impropriety against her were "categorically untrue and incredibly dangerous".
But she faced criticism from BLM organisers over the way she has spent her money.
“If you go around calling yourself a socialist, you have to ask how much of her own personal money is going to charitable causes,” Hawk Newsome, a Black Lives Matter organiser, told The New York Post.
"It's really sad because it makes people doubt the validity of the movement."
BLM collected $90 million in donations last year, as the movement hit the global spotlight following the murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin, in Minneapolis.