One year after the real-estate buying binge of its founder was exposed by The Post, a new documentary dives deep into the murky finances of the Black Lives Matter Global Foundation and meets some of the people it allegedly harmed.
The Greatest Lie Ever Sold, a film spearheaded by controversial conservative commentator Candace Owens, premiered Wednesday in Nashville at a screening attended by Kanye West, Ray J and Kid Rock.
In the documentary, the Daily Wire host examines what Patrisse Cullors, BLMs self-described trained Marxist co-founder, did with the $90 million that her group amassed after the May 2020 slaying of George Floyd, the Black man whose cries of I cant breathe set off global protests when he died under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer.
Cullors resigned from the national non-profit in 2021, a month after The Post revealed she had spent millions on real estate in the previous months and the organization has remained mired in financial scandal. Cullors said her departure was unrelated to those attacks, and that she was leaving to focus on a book and TV deal.BLM has denied that any wrongdoing occurred.
Black Lives Matter, Owens charges, is a fraudulent organization that uses black emotion and black pain to extort dollars from white America.
In the films most poignant moments, people who claim their lives were harmed by BLM and its supporters speak out.
None of BLMs $90 million bounty helped the couple who shared the last four years of Floyds life.
Housemates Alvin Manago and Theresa Scott lived with Floyd in a tidy red two-story home on a corner lot in Minneapoliss leafy Minikahda Vista neighborhood.
He was a people person, Manago tells the filmmakers of Floyd. A Bible was the only thing youd see on his desk.
In the film, Scott displays Floyds Bible, filled with the pink and yellow highlights he used to pick out lines from Proverbs and the Gospel of Matthew.
I used to hear him reading that Bible out loud all the time, she recalls with a smile.
The couple still has Floyds Bible because no member of his extended family ever came to claim it.
I aint never met a sister, I aint never met a brother, Smith says. Floyds family could not immediately be reached for comment.
When Floyd died, catapulting his family into the media spotlight, they didnt even come and look and see where the man lived, Smith says. They never came and got none of his stuff. Nothing.
That left Manago and Smith with a pile of possessions and mounting bills.
We would share everything the rent, lights, gas, Smith says. So when that happened to Floyd, everything fell back on me and Alvin.
Floyds car, a dark green PT Cruiser shrouded in blue and black tarps against the harsh Minnesota weather, was left to molder in their driveway.
We couldnt do nothing with it because we didnt have the title, Manago says. They wont take it or move it.
Manago was at a loss to explain what happened to all the cash BLM activists collected, and why none of it went to help them.
Its like they used it as a way of funding whatever their motivation was, he says.
We were looted for over $400,000 worth of merchandise, said Fraser Ross of his Kitson boutique in Los Angeles. It was a disaster.
But the May 30 protests that led to the ransacking of the celebrity-favorite stores was only the beginning of Ross humiliation at the hands of self-proclaimed BLM allies, he claims in the film.
The looting came just hours after model Chrissy Teigen posted social media messages pledging $100,000 to bail protesters out of jail which Ross felt was encouraging the violence.
When you have approximately 30 million followers, you can start a movement, he says in the film. And then you had celebrities like Jennifer Garner giving four hearts to that post.
Well, its not their stuff being destroyed, he says. I went online and posted an Instagram of the store being looted, and I tagged it, Thanks, Chrissy.
His post set off a flame war with Teigen and two of her prominent online pals, Jen Atkin of Ouai Haircare and Instagram influencer Dana Omari, who publicly ridiculed Rosss losses and accused him of racism.
Theyre mocking the looting! he exclaims. You should be in federal prison if youre inciting violence with that many people following you.
The increasingly nasty posts culminated in an ultimatum from Omari, Ross claims: either publicly apologize to Teigen and admit that his anger over the looting comes from a place of privilege or write a $10,000 check to Black Lives Matter.
I was worried at how aggressive they were, he says. And the looting was still approaching Kitsons flagship boutique. He paid the $10K.
The film shows what Ross says is a follow-up text message from Omari, who demanded to see his receipt from BLM, or else.
Remember if you dont actually make the donation, Ill bring the posts back from the archive, the text reads. And Ill do another post about this unfortunate situation. Thank you 🙂
And she told me, Chrissy Teigen thanked me for what she did, Ross adds.
Omari denies Rosss story in the documentary, telling the filmmakers that he made the BLM donation of his own volition. A representative for Teigen did not respond to a request for comment.
Four miles east of the peaceful block where George Floyd lived in Minneapolis is the gritty street where he died: Chicago Avenue, now known as George Perry Floyd Jr. Place.
Pastor Charles Karuku, a Kenyan immigrant, has lived in the area since 1987.
It was just a typical Midwestern city with low crime and hardworking people, Karuku recalls in the film.
We saw anger, mayhem, looting, destruction of property, burning of police precincts, the pastor says of the protests that turned to riots in the wake of Floyds death. And it was completely foreign to me.
Karuku preached on Chicago Avenue throughout the chaos.
Weve seen death, he says. Weve seen a man shot right in front of us; weve seen a woman who was pregnant shot right in front of us.
Homicides in Minneapolis increased by 60% in 2020 and have remained stubbornly high since.
When the documentarians came to film in March 2022, the neighborhood still bore the scars, with empty storefronts up and down the two-block strip.
I feel like there has been a tremendous loss, Karuku says. Its a hard thing for people to rebuild themselves, especially after what they went through.
But BLMs millions didnt go to benefit the devastated neighborhood, says Karuku.
Everything looks worse than it was, he adds. So many elements took advantage of the death of George Floyd to stir up emotions for political gain, for financial gain, and to propagate division.
They are not helping the community. They are helping themselves.
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