Black Lives Matter founder breaks down in interview over right-wing attacks on her new home
(Getty Images for Patrisse Cullors)
(LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 18: Patrisse Cullors speaks at her Thesis Solo Show on April 18, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Patrisse Cullor))Black Lives Matter(BLM) co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors broke down in tears while discussing criticism she faced last week over her housing portfolio.
Ms Khan-Cullors, 37, who created the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter in 2013 and later co-founded the Black Lives Matter Network, was criticised last week after the New York Post revealed that she had spent $1.4m (£1.017m) on a Los Angeles property, her third residence in the city and fourth overall.
She has bought two other homes in the Los Angeles area over the last few years, which sit in her portfolio alongside a 3.2 acre property in Georgia that she purchased for $415,000 (£301,950).
Questions were raised about how the director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation had acquired the funds to pay for the properties, with Black sports journalist Jason Whitlock accusing her and other BLM founders of “making millions of dollars off the backs of these dead black men who they wouldn’t spit on if they were on fire and alive”.
However, during an interview with Marc Lamont Hill for Black News Tonight on Thursday, Ms Khan-Cullors described the scrutiny over her homes as a “racist and sexist” attack by the “right-wing media”.
She then broke down in tears as she revealed that she hired security last week after the initial reports came out and her new home was pictured in the media.
Ms Khan-Cullors also rejected claims that the purchases go against her self-described ideology as a “trained Marxist”, explaining that she bought the homes for her family, and defines her wealth “as my family’s money, as well.”
She added: “I think that is critique that is wanting. The way that I live my life is a direct support to black people, including my black family members, first and foremost.
“For so many black folks who are able to invest in themselves and their communities they choose to invest in their family and that is what I have chosen to do.”
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