CLEVELAND, OH – The only people who appear to be benefitting from Communists Patrisse Cullors and Janaya Khan’s capitalizing off the misery of the families who have lost loved ones to police violence is the two founders of the Black Lives Matter Global Network. They raised over $100 million in 2020. Cleveland BLM co-founder Kareem Abdul Nafi says the local chapter received $5000 in 2015 and no more.
“They got an exhorbitant amount of money from people who are under the assumption that they’re distributing it to the people on the ground doing the work,” Nafi told EJBNEWS. “When she identifies herself as a Marxist she’s claiming to be bringing the better parts of Socialism. She seems like a greedy capitalist the way she’s operating. It’s disappointing as hell and angering.”
Nafi – the brother of actor and East Cleveland native John Henton – says he is neither a Socialist nor a Communist; and that the Cleveland chapter and others in a Democratic nation are demanding transparency from Cullors and Khan when it comes to funding and spending. He ripped the two self-proclaimed Marxists in a nation that outlaws Communism for ignoring repeated requests from numerous chapters for them to share information about the non-profit organization’s finances.
EJBNEWS reached out to Nafi after the New York Post revealed how Communist and Black Lives Matter co-founder and executive director Patrisse Cullors-Khan bought four homes valued at $3.2 million for herself, her “husband”, Janaya Khan, and the other people she loves. Her money is being invested in Black people and she says its “racist” as well as “dangerous” and “misogynistic” to talk about the $1.4 million home she purchased
According to Cullors-Khan, BLM has invested $27 million of the more than $100 million the non-profit has received with “Black led organizations.” She also hasn’t earned a wage from BLM even though the organization released a statement saying otherwise after stories surfaced about the $1.4 million home she purchased on March 30, 2021 at 1651 Old Topanga Canyon Road Topanga, CA, 90290. She’s been paid $120,000 by BLM since 2013. Cullors claimed in a statement she doesn’t receive a dime in compensation as the profitable non-profit’s “volunteer” executive director.
Nafi told EJBNEWS he’s aware that Cullors and Khan’s organization have donated to chapters that are connected to the BLM Grass Roots Network. The two have also created a BLM Political Action Committee to back Communist-leaning political candidates.
Where the money’s not getting is to the families of those who have lost loved ones and the local chapters. Nafi said $100 million could have paid the burial costs for every person whose life was lost to police violence at $10,000 a funeral.
“A woman whose son was killed in Los Angeles, his mother, Lisa Simpson, was homeless. She was excommunicated by the BLM LA chapter which collects the most money out of the locals,” Nafi said. “They collected money in Richard Simpson’s name and didn’t use a dime to help her.”
Nafi said support from Cullors’ BLM Global Network could have also helped the Cleveland chapter build awareness about meaningful political reforms.
Nafi has been advocating for Cleveland residents to be able to address their concerns during city council meetings. His step-Son was killed two years ago during a staged robbery and he believes Cleveland needs three shifts of detectives solving homicides instead of two shifts.
Cleveland’s detective bureau operations were cut from three shifts to two in 1985 by then Republican Mayor George Voinovich after Democratic Governor Richard Celeste shoved a collective bargaining law down the throats of the state’s taxpayers in 1983. Cops stopped solving homicides and redirected their efforts into drug arrests to boost their wages through overtime to increase pensions as they were allowed to negotiate wages and benefits. Before Celeste public employee unions could only negotiate working conditions. After Celeste public employee pensions got larger and services to taxpayers shrank.
Nafi believes public comment during council meetings would elevate the thinking of the city’s elected legislators beyond what they think they know about local government; and allow citizens with problems created by the less than statutorily-compliant management of city hall and the clerk of court’s office to publicly-address them. He sees public comment during council meetings as being able to release the pressure valve that resulted in downtown Cleveland’s destruction.
Nafi said Cullors and Khan are frauds capitalizing on the suffering of others. He’s also not alone in his claims. So is Samaria Rice who recently joined with Simpson to call out her former attorney, Benjamin Crump, as well as Cullors, Khan and Tamica Mallory. The two mothers want them to keep their children’s names off their lips; and said so in a joint statement on social media.
Rice has created the Tamir Rice Foundation as the sole recipient of funds intended to support a community center she’s building out of a building she purchased in Cleveland. Like Simpson and the other families of loved ones lost to unconstitutional policing, she found herself and Tamir’s image being used by people who’ve made profiteering off the misery of others an industry thanks to social media. Anyone can create a Go Fund Me page in the names of their loved ones and raise money under the guise that it will be used to ease a family’s burdens.
On a website called blmchapterstatement.com, a letter was promoted by 8 BLM chapters demanding accountability from Cullors and Khan; and asking donors to donate directly to the chapters and not to Black Lives Matter Global Network or its BLM Political Action Committee and BLM Grassroots. A letter titled “It’s time for accountability” accuses Cullors-Khan of being undemocratic” which she’s already admitted she’s not as a “trained Marxist.” Under Communism leaders operate in secret. There’s no such thing as “open government.”
Nafi said the Cleveland BLM chapter would also prefer that donations for its efforts be directed locally instead of to Cullors’ BLM Global Network, BLM Global and the BLM PAC. He said local chapters have no knowledge if Cullors and Khan are investing in more real estate, securities and benefits for themselves. Neither does the contributing donor.
Nafi sees in Cullors, Khan, Mallory and others nothing more than selfish individuals chasing “celebrity” as a lifestyle off the misery of others. He described Mallory’s deal with General Motors as disgraceful.
Nafi said. “They’re watching folk who run the non-profits elevate themselves to wealth and celebrity status fighting for people for whom they have no interest. Breonna Taylor gets killed by police and they commercialize it with Love & Hip Hop and BreonnaCon.
“You would never see a Malcolm X, Fannie Lou Hamer or Martin Luther King cutting a deal with GM.”
