Since the early stages of the protests in the Ferguson, there's been clear evidence of the "professional protestors" crowd exploiting the situation for their own agendas. Now some of the protestors are protesting not getting paid for protesting.
In May, protest group Millenial Activists United (MAU) staged a sit-in at the HQ of their fellow activist non-profit Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE) (formerly known as the St Louis ACORN chapter) over what MAU says is money they owe them and the other "poor black people" who helped raise funds in Ferguson.
In a complaint MAU posted online, the group accuses MORE of failing to spread the wealth from a "joint account" created by MORE and a local St. Louis organication had accumulated "over $150,000" from "national donors from all over the world." "[P]oor black people of this movement ... have seen little to none of that money," the letter says, adding that their demand is simple: "Cut the checks." The group also launched a hashtag movement, #cutthechecks, to add social media pressure.
The complaint provides a brief history of the groups' relationship and frames the internal fight as race-based, accusing the "white non-profits" of "hoarding monies collected off of black bodies":
Early in the movement, non-profit organization MORE, formerly known as the St. Louis chapter of ACORN, and local St. Louis organization Organization for Black Struggle created a joint account in which national donors from all over the world have donated over $150,000 to sustain the movement. Since then, the poor black people of this movement who served as cash generators to bring money into St. Louis have seen little to none of that money. Furthermore, since the influx of funding has started, poor black people continue to take to the streets all the while losing their homes, vehicles, ability to feed themselves and their families, and suffering from trauma and mental illness with no ability to afford quality mental health services. Questions have been raised as to how the movement is to sustain when white non-profits are hoarding monies collected of off black bodies?
The letter declares that there is an "insidious strand of racism and white supremacy" in the Black Lives Matter movement and makes clear that if the protests are to continue, black activists must get paid to participate.
This isn't about MORE. This is about black lives in the Black Lives Matter movement who are literally broke and starving. There is an insidious strand of racism and white supremacy that exists in this movement and it is called the Non-Profit Industrial Complex.
Here's a screenshot of the full complaint:
Multiple news reports confirmed the presence of outside "professional protestors" in Ferguson, with many of those getting arrested turning out to be non-local. At the height of the controversy, several outside groups descended on Ferguson, "spontaneously" bussing in protestors, including the ANSWER Coalition, the U.S. Human Rights Network, the New Black Panthers, and, of course, the leader of the grievance industry, Al Sharpton and his National Action Network
This article has been updated.
