What is BLM 10 Plus? Michael Brown's dad joins new 'transparent' BLM movement
Michael Brown Sr, the father of a black teen shot dead by police, has now joined the cause that demands to know what Black Lives Matter's $90 million funds have been used for after its co-founder's $3 million property portfolio was exposed. For a while now BLM co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors has been at the center of a controversy involving her million-dollar properties. Things took a turn for the worse after her $3 million property portfolio was revealed, and then she ended up giving in her resignation last month.
A parallel movement is taking form called the BLM 10 Plus movement, which is comprised of the original 10 Black Lives Matter chapters who are seeking transparency and accountability from BLM about how and where the funds had been used.
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Michael Brown Sr, whose 18-year-old son Michael Brown was shot dead by a cop in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, has added his name to the BLM 10 Plus movement.
Complaints against Black Lives Matter
In 2020, Black Lives Matter reportedly took in $90 million and was left with a balance sheet of $60 million by January 2021. As per reports, some $8 million was spent on expenses that included staffing costs, while the other $20 million was donated to local chapters and nonprofits.
However, following the release of Cullors' expensive property portfolio, there are many questions that are being raised about the funds. At the same time, there are complaints about a lack of transparency from families that were previously supported by the group. News reports revealed that Cullors owned four residential properties in upscale, predominantly white California and Georgia neighborhoods - with a total value of more than $3 million.
Critics of Cullors and the movement were worried that she had purchased her homes with the money earned from the nonprofit foundation. However, Cullors clarified that those houses were bought with money she earned through public speaking and books she has written.
As per a report in Fox News, Michael Brown Sr is perhaps the most notable name to join the BLM 10 Plus movement. The death of Brown Sr's 18-year-old son at the hands of 28-year-old white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson and the decision not to charge Wilson, combined with the violence between police and protesters in the aftermath of the death have all largely been credited for the initial rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.
As per the reports, the BLM foundation took in over $90 million last year and had said it committed $21.7 million in grant funding to official and unofficial BLM chapters, along with 30 black-led local organizations.
What is the BLM 10 Plus Movement?
While records show that some chapters received multiple rounds of funding - in amounts ranging between $800 and $69,000 going back as far as 2016 - the BLM10 reportedly said that these amounts have been far from fair when compared to just how much the Black Lives Matter movement has raised over the years.
Furthermore, critics of the foundation argue that more money should have been given to families of Black victims of police brutality, in particular those who have been unable to access the resources they needed to deal with their trauma and loss. On Friday, the BLM 10 Plus group released a statement that read, "The number of chapters that have aligned in support of our statement has nearly doubled."
"Some of these chapters have made their own statements echoing not only our call to accountability but also our experiences as we sought transparency, democracy, and internal transformation for years," the statement continued.
"The BLM 10 Plus continues the call for transparency and most importantly, for principled accountability in movement infrastructures." The statement added, "The issues we've highlighted within the Black Lives Matter movement are not unique to this group or to people of color. Grassroots movements have been co-opted across the globe and it is our intention to be a part of the collective creating processes based on integrity so that we, nor any other activist or advocate, encounters these avoidable issues in the future."
In addition to that, the BLM 10 Plus group also pointed out that those chapters that have been critical of how the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation was running, removed their names from the foundation's website in November 2020.