Over the weekend, a founding member of the Black Lives Matter movement took to social media in tears while retelling the story of what she said was her waking up to a film crew on her property. The supposed crew was led by Black conservative influencer Candace Owens, who claims she is creating a documentary on the “lie” of the social movement.
Owens said in social media post of her own she went to the building looking for answers and that the activist’s “crocodile tears” are a distraction to mislead the public.
Both Patrisse Cullors and Owens took to social media to recount the story: one said it was an innocent investigation into “fraud,” and the other believes it opened dangerous doors for others to harm her family, friends, and loved ones.
According to a three-minute video posted on Owens’ Instagram on May 7, the pregnant Owens arrived at the property and “politely asked if there was anyone available” to speak to someone.
Her motivation, according to her caption was to ask, “where did the millions of dollars go that were raised by BLM?” and have “cameras rolling” so the public could “see the truth vs. her HILARIOUS lie.”
She alleges Cullors is crying in her live recording, happening simultaneously, not because she is afraid for her life but afraid of being “exposed as a fraud.”
The onetime Kanye West political counsel said, “OK, so this is insane in real-time right now. I am watching Patrisse Cullors do a live, claiming that I went to her property and demanded to speak to her … she sounds like she’s really scared.”
“We’re working on a documentary talking about all the funding pertaining to Black Lives Matter,” she continued.
“Obviously, we know that Patrisse and a lot of the founders purchased million-dollar, whole million-dollar homes, in white neighborhoods. They also purchased a Black Lives Matter property. So, we went to the property and asked if there was anyone that we could speak to very politely. By the way, we’ve got cameras in tow, so there’s no way she can lie. It’s all on camera.”
Owens did not speak to anyone. She said a white security officer took her query inside of the gated property, but to no avail. She also mentioned, it “is super interesting, because obviously, Patrisse here is anti-police.”
When addressing Cullors crying on Instagram, she said, “what you are seeing right now is the face of a woman who is pretending she’s afraid of right-wing pundits, when in reality, she’s being exposed as a fraud who took millions, used the faces of Black people, took millions of dollars to fund herself, to fund her lifestyle, to fund her girlfriend, and to buy a million-dollar mansion in neighborhoods where no Black people live.”
“So, Patrisse, this footage, the story, that we’re covering is a significant one,” she continued. “I have always been interested in the fraud that is Black Lives Matter.”
Owens said Cullors’ “crocodile tears” are disingenuous and misleading.
“This is only going to commit me further to discovering the truth about what you have done with this funding,” she said. “Black people died. You use their faces to raise money. You demanded that the policing be stopped. You demanded that police officers be defunded, but you’ve got a private security detail outside of million-dollar homes.”
Cullors, one of the founders of the BLM movement, has been under fire for the way she and her colleagues have spent the money donated to the movement.
According to an interview with The Associated Press released on May 8, Cullors denies any inappropriate spending has been done on her part in regard to the approximately $90 million donations given since 2020 to the organization she she started and once ran, Black Lives Matter Global Network.
The organization purchased a $6 million compound in Los Angeles with those dollars.
Cullors says they looked at commercial buildings and residential buildings but decided on this one because it was a perfect mesh of the two. The activist says the place fits the mission statement of the organization with other amenities that made it an attractive investment. It has office space, parking, a home on the property, a soundstage for podcasting, and a place to do live events in the backyard.
She said she believes Black organizers “who are fighting day in day out on behalf of Black lives deserve to receive salaries and deserve to receive benefits.”
Cullors also unequivocally denies using money donated to BLM for her personal gain.
She said, “I never used Black Lives Matter donations to pay for any of the properties that I own in the past or own right now. You know the idea that Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation received millions of dollars and then I hid those dollars in my bank account is absolutely false.”
This concept around fund misappropriation is at the root of Owens’ documentary.
Cullors was tearful in her own May 8 video as she expressed her concerns about what she said was Owens coming to her home.
“This morning, I woke up to Candace Owens being outside of my house with a news crew,” she revealed.
“She was demanding that I come outside. And when I looked at the video recording of what she was asking about, she was actually asking about the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation property. And for some reason, it seems like she thought my house was that. It’s unacceptable.”
In her video, originally streamed on her Instagram Live, Cullors continued to say this type of reporting is “dangerous” and that she was in “shock” that this would happen at her personal residence.
“It’s dangerous that anybody, any stranger, comes outside of my house, but it’s really unacceptable and dangerous when Candace Owens, another black woman, who is actually working as a part of a right-wing agenda, comes outside of my house with cameras,” she stated.
“As you all know, I’ve experienced (and many of us have experienced) death threats. Many of us have children. Many of us are super vulnerable. And the fact that she came outside my house and demanded things, harassed me, is unacceptable,” she said tearfully.
“And I’m going to keep doing the work I need to do to make sure that I’m in right relationship with my community.”
Her relationship with some members of the Black community has been strained because of the property. Cullors believes the right-wing pundits are at the core of this tension, pushing a false narrative about money.
Before asking for prayer and saying she was going to exercise, she ended her four-minute video with a warning, “they are purposefully building a wedge between black people. Because they know that when we are together, we’re stronger.”
“And they’ve seen what we’ve done this last decade, they’ve seen what we’ve done.”
