In the lead up to the U.S. presidential election, "Imperfect Paradise" will be sitting down with four notable Californians to talk about a range of issues including gender, race and democratic values.
The series includes philosopher and gender studies scholar Judith Butler, Republican campaign strategist and author of “The Latino Century: How America’s Largest Minority is Transforming Democracy” Mike Madrid, and newly inaugurated president of the Los Angeles City Council Marqueece Harris-Dawson.
This week’s guest is artist, abolitionist and co-founder of Black Lives Matter Patrisse Cullors. Cullors grew up in Los Angeles, a city she says “shaped my brain and body and also my organizing activism and art.”
Cullors would spend nearly a decade organizing under the banner of Black Lives Matter. She would go on to head the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation — a nonprofit that aimed to create infrastructure within the decentralized movement.
Cullors left the organization in 2021 after she was criticized by both right wing media and others in the BLM movement for what many saw as mismanagement of funds after it became public that the Black Lives Matter Global Network foundation spent $6 million to purchase a property that included a mansion using funds that were donated in response to the murder of George Floyd. She later said she used the property for private events twice.
Cullors has now turned her attention away from organizing and towards her artwork. This past summer, she had her first solo show at the Charles James Gallery in Chinatown titled Between the Warp and the Weft inspired by her Ifá Yoruba spiritual practice. Cullors has said that one of the questions she is asking in her work is “can Black women protect themselves?” It’s a question Antonia Cereijido, host of LAist Studio's "Imperfect Paradise," explores with Cullors — to understand what it means to her personally given the controversy that has shrouded her. It’s also a crucial question within the social justice movement and for the upcoming presidential election, in which, for the first time, a Black woman is on the top of a major party ticket.
Interview excerpts have been edited and condensed for clarity.
Cullors on how Los Angeles influenced her
Everything about growing up Black and poor and over policed in Los Angeles shaped everything. I mean, truly everything that I've done – witnessing and experiencing multiple raids in my home growing up, or my brother being on probation, which meant that a probation officer can show up anytime they want and search homes, search anything…We forget L.A. is the largest jailer in the world. This city has shaped the carceral language, carceral attitude of a country. Not the South, this city, Los Angeles, and a state that's a liberal progressive state. And so this place's carceral attitudes and policing shaped my brain and body and also my organizing activism and art.
Cullors when asked about allegations she mismanaged BLM’s funds while she was executive director of Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation
So many things happened with the money. It paid people. At that point, I ushered $25 million back into community. And also, the money came in a month. BLM received like $100 million in a month. And we were getting ourselves together. Right now, if you go on BLM's website they have a whole transparency hub, you can see everything. And the fact that like, that hasn't been the like, headline is on purpose.
Antonia: But to be specific the critique was that there was a $6 million property. And I just want to clarify that that $6 million property was not bought for you and your personal home.
Patrisse: No…if you look at the NAACP, if you look at any large civil rights organizations, they have brick and mortar [properties]. Also, from a financial standpoint, dollars depreciate. So putting money and investing it back into something for Black people actually appreciates. I got calls from Black people where they said, “Yeah, that makes sense.” And other people didn't like that. And that's actually okay. What the right wing media did is exploit those disagreements. And then lifted them up… And we actually have to understand the difference. If we don't understand the difference, especially journalists and media outlets, then we end up just recreating right wing propaganda. And that's very dangerous.
Cullors on the upcoming 2024 U.S. presidential election
I feel like Vice President Kamala Harris has been put into a seat that is incredibly historic, not just because she may be the first Black woman president, but because she's up against a right wing movement that has also used their movement to lambast her. She's up against a historic moment to try to reposition very real things like abortion rights and the economy back into a place that many of us can feel proud of. So I have questions for her. I have questions for her around her relationship to what's happening in the Middle East in the region. I have questions for her around immigration. I have questions for her around policing and over policing of Black communities. And we should question any candidate. And I also understand the moment she is up against and the moment we are all up against.
Listen to the full interview on Imperfect Paradise here:
