One of the cofounders of Black Lives Matter, a movement that wants to end the nuclear family, said she bought millions of dollars of property to look out for her family.
Patrisse Cullors, a self-described Marxist who reportedly bought four homes worth $3.2 million in recent years, defended the spending spree as a decision to "invest in [her] family."
"I have a child, I have a brother that has severe mental illness that I take care of, I support my mother, and I support many other family members of mine," Cullors said. "I see my money as not my own. I see it as my family's money as well."
Cullors’s response is at odds with statements Black Lives Matter has made on family structure. On a page now deleted from its website, the group said one of its goals was to "disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and 'villages' that collectively care for one another."
In a fantastic interview with @marclamonthill #patricecullors explains how her home ownership and income don’t betray her marxist principles. It’s all for her family. pic.twitter.com/MPAo3ZE7JK
— #1 #SNOWFALLFX FAN IN LIFE (free Melody) (@VanLathan) April 16, 2021
Cullors's defense of her real estate spending spree came during an interview with anti-Semitic activist Marc Lamont Hill, who pressed Cullors about the "potential contradiction between your expressed politics [of Marxism] and your lived practice" of owning several expensive homes.
Cullors's lavish lifestyle has prompted criticism from others involved in the Black Lives Matter movement. Hawk Newsome, a New York City organizer for the group, said that Cullors's activity "makes people doubt the validity of the movement and overlook the fact that it’s the people that carry this movement."
Newsome is demanding accountability of Cullors's financials. "We need black firms and black accountants to go in there and find out where the money is going," he said.
The New York Post first reported Cullors bought four homes for over $3 million total and "also eyed property in the Bahamas at an ultra-exclusive resort where Justin Timberlake and Tiger Woods both have homes."
Earlier this week, Facebook banned users from sharing the Post's reporting on Cullors’s spending spree, claiming it "was removed for violating our privacy and personal information policy."
Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation did not respond to a request for comment.