Current Events > Amazon suspends Black Lives Matter from its charity platform

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https://nypost.com/2022/02/17/amazon-suspends-black-lives-matter-from-its-charity-platform/

The beleaguered Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has been kicked off Amazons charity platform for its failure to disclose where tens of millions in donations it received nearly two years ago have ended up. AmazonSmile, which gives a portion of eligible purchases on the online shopping site to charities, said it had to temporarily suspend the group today, an Amazon spokesperson told The Post. States have rules for nonprofits, and organizations participating in AmazonSmile need to meet those rules, the spokesperson said. Unfortunately this organization fell out of compliance with the rules in several states, so weve had to temporarily suspend them from the program until they come into compliance. Amazon plans to hold any funds that have accumulated for BLMGNF until theyre back in compliance, the spokesperson said. AmazonSmile has raised more than $300 million for charities, according to its website.

In Oct. 2020, BLMGNF took in more than $65 million in donations from Thousand Currents, a charity that manages assets of grassroots non-profits, according to documents filed with the California Attorney General. But the group has so far failed to disclose what it did with the cash. As a result, several states have revoked its ability to collect donations. In California, where the group is based, the states Department of Justice warned BLMGNFs leaders earlier this month that they would be personally liable for any delinquency fees and fines. On Feb. 11, BLMGNF released its long-overdue federal tax filing, but also changed its accounting period from a calendar year to a fiscal year. The filing shows no contributions or grants between the January to June reporting period, and the group likely has another year to file their return for the remainder of 2020.

Lebronwon posted...

its failure to disclose where tens of millions in donations it received nearly two years ago have ended up

Seems fair

refmon posted...

Seems fair

Found the racist, everyone

From what I understand there is no real leader of BLM. But there are some who claim to be leaders and might misuse their positions.

Still doesn't excuse what cops do to black people

Didnt the money go to buy one of their founders a mansion in LA?

refmon posted...

Seems fair

It went into property purchases if the leaks were correct.

Seems like a non-story to me. Rules are rules and they broke them

brotrrwinner posted...

Found the racist, everyone

Doesn't seem like racism has anything to do with it, actually.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

given that poster's usual posting habits, it's pretty clear it's concern trolling

A well meaning initiative grew very large and became susceptible to being abused and exploited. It's hardly unique

BeantownHero posted...

A well meaning initiative grew very large and became susceptible to being abused and exploited. It's hardly unique

The thing is they never ever were transparent about donations from the jump

Didnt one of the leaders buy a huge house in a white neighbourhood using the money?

Nevermind it was FOUR houses worth millions, geez.

Read into it more, apparently there was 'missing context' about her ever digging into BLM funds. If that's the case why don't they just disclose where the funds went. Its suspect tbh.

Greed sees no color.

The first people to call out the the pattern of misuse of funds and overall dishonesty and unaccountability of the BLM organization were the Black community going back to 2014 with Darren Seals. They hijacked the Hands Up Dont Shoot grassroots movement and original Black Rights protesters and organizers set up corporations and organizations to accept donations and those donations don't primarily go to protecting Black people from the system of white supremacy and police violence. It goes to other agendas many of them subversive to the Black community and freedom fighters such as Darren Seals called them out from the beginning and many of those who were fighting in the beginning who spoke out against this were found suspiciously murdered

donating directly to blm just means you're a sucker

There is no need to obtain a statement from BLMGNF, because we all know what they will blame this on.

I am absolutely not a fan of BLM. However I think there is a tragedy behind (mainly) its organization, where it has always performed far below its potential as a social and political force that may have an impact for decades to come.

Black Lives Matter in general has almost always had as a fatal flaw a bleeding heart for questionable narratives and situations. It does not say No when doing so would hurt someone's reputation and improve the reputation of institutional structures that disproportionately say No to black people. Its motivation as I understand it is not to be co-opted into attacks on black people which it believes reflect institutional racism.

Given these sympathies, it is in my opinion unsurprising that we have started seeing from the woke academia the idea that such ubiquitous social and cultural norms like the value of rationality, hard work, and timeliness are in some way "white culture" or even white supremacist culture.

https://www.aei.org/op-eds/smithsonian-institution-explains-that-rationality-hard-work-are-racist/

If you connect such beliefs with BLM, then you have an increased likelihood of an organization that cannot run its books. Whether because it doesn't hire qualified candidates or it just doesn't have the culture that supports good bookkeeping and roots out bad bookkeeping until a crisis occurs.

The truth is, this story shows BLM has two fatal flaws. The first is that what it believes prevents it from saying No when it should.

The second, and this is the real tragedy, is that it has no ability to foresee, and avoid, the sequential consequences of having beliefs that are disconnected with the broader social norms of the society it functions within.

RemixRBG posted...

The first people to call out the the pattern of misuse of funds and overall dishonesty and unaccountability of the BLM organization were the Black community going back to 2014 with Darren Seals. They hijacked the Hands Up Dont Shoot grassroots movement and original Black Rights protesters and organizers set up corporations and organizations to accept donations and those donations don't primarily go to protecting Black people from the system of white supremacy and police violence. It goes to other agendas many of them subversive to the Black community and freedom fighters such as Darren Seals called them out from the beginning and many of those who were fighting in the beginning who spoke out against this were found suspiciously murdered

How curious.

A look at Wikipedia and I can find no flaw in this post.

I support BLM, but it's a movement, not a charity. They're not wrong in suspending one organization if they don't know exactly where the funds are going

RemixRBG posted...

The first people to call out the the pattern of misuse of funds and overall dishonesty and unaccountability of the BLM organization were the Black community going back to 2014 with Darren Seals. They hijacked the Hands Up Dont Shoot grassroots movement and original Black Rights protesters and organizers set up corporations and organizations to accept donations and those donations don't primarily go to protecting Black people from the system of white supremacy and police violence. It goes to other agendas many of them subversive to the Black community and freedom fighters such as Darren Seals called them out from the beginning and many of those who were fighting in the beginning who spoke out against this were found suspiciously murdered

Well that's just terrible

Centralizing a political movement around one person or small group of people seems to come at the detriment of the movement itself.

RemixRBG posted...

The first people to call out the the pattern of misuse of funds and overall dishonesty and unaccountability of the BLM organization were the Black community going back to 2014 with Darren Seals. They hijacked the Hands Up Dont Shoot grassroots movement and original Black Rights protesters and organizers set up corporations and organizations to accept donations and those donations don't primarily go to protecting Black people from the system of white supremacy and police violence. It goes to other agendas many of them subversive to the Black community and freedom fighters such as Darren Seals called them out from the beginning and many of those who were fighting in the beginning who spoke out against this were found suspiciously murdered

Even Tamir Rice's mother wanted them to stop talking about her son because she knew they were using him for things like this. BLM was always like this. Let's also not use the argument that there's a difference between the movement and organization. That's an argument some use for religions

atmasabr posted...

There is no need to obtain a statement from BLMGNF, because we all know what they will blame this on.

I am absolutely not a fan of BLM. However I think there is a tragedy behind (mainly) its organization, where it has always performed far below its potential as a social and political force that may have an impact for decades to come.

Black Lives Matter in general has almost always had as a fatal flaw a bleeding heart for questionable narratives and situations. It does not say No when doing so would hurt someone's reputation and improve the reputation of institutional structures that disproportionately say No to black people. Its motivation as I understand it is not to be co-opted into attacks on black people which it believes reflect institutional racism.

Given these sympathies, it is in my opinion unsurprising that we have started seeing from the woke academia the idea that such ubiquitous social and cultural norms like the value of rationality, hard work, and timeliness are in some way "white culture" or even white supremacist culture.

https://www.aei.org/op-eds/smithsonian-institution-explains-that-rationality-hard-work-are-racist/

If you connect such beliefs with BLM, then you have an increased likelihood of an organization that cannot run its books. Whether because it doesn't hire qualified candidates or it just doesn't have the culture that supports good bookkeeping and roots out bad bookkeeping until a crisis occurs.

The truth is, this story shows BLM has two fatal flaws. The first is that what it believes prevents it from saying No when it should.

The second, and this is the real tragedy, is that it has no ability to foresee, and avoid, the sequential consequences of having beliefs that are disconnected with the broader social norms of the society it functions within.

Ok so a few questions
A) To be clear, you feel that BLM needs to be more discrete in which events it highlights before you support it?
B) Is the Smithsonian OP ED piece representative of ALL academia? You seemed to be finding he most extreme position and using it to paint a narrative...
C) Tangentially, do you believe there are systemic factors that work against minorities?
D) Do you believe black lives matter, in a higher rate of force/fatalities in police encounters/the legal system?