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A database that claims to show corporate contributions to the BLM Movement & Related Causes doesnt show any contributions from Silicon Valley Bank to Black Lives Matter. But some conservative commentators are citing it to falsely claim that the bank gave more than $73 million to the organization.

The failure of Silicon Valley Bank has drawn commentary from across the political spectrum. But some conservatives have highlighted a false claim connecting the bank to Black Lives Matter.

Shortly after federal regulators took control of SVBs assets on March 10, making it the second-largest bank failure since at least 2001, some conservative commentators began claiming that it had donated millions to BLM, the social justice organization that began after the vigilante murder of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2013 and gained widespread attention after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020.

Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson, for example, told his audience on March 14, Silicon Valley Bank brace yourself spent more than $73 million on donations to BLM and related organizations. Wow. And this is not personal funds, apparently these were bank funds. Might be kind of nice to have that money now.

And the conservative website Breitbart ran a headline claiming: Failed Silicon Valley Bank Gave Black Lives Matter over $73 Million.

But thats not true.

Those claims and many others like them are based on an analysis from the conservative Claremont Institute. The organization recently posted a database purporting to show corporate contributions to the BLM Movement & Related Causes.

Despite the name of the project the BLM Funding Database direct donations to BLM groups account for about 2% of the total amount included in the database for all corporations.

So, the vast majority of the funding went toward related causes. In the case of SVB, all of it did. The bank didnt donate anything to BLM, according to the database.

The Claremont Institute defined related causes as organizations and initiatives that advance one or more aspects of BLMs agenda.

In a March 14 opinion piece announcing the database, the institute described BLM as encompassing the full range of leftist causes, saying, its goal is to undermine capitalism, the nation state, and Western civilization.

Thats a broad mandate. After looking into what met that threshold for SVB, we found that the institute had included a need-based scholarship program, a commitment to lend to and support underserved borrowers, and a program to match employees charitable donations.

Its also worth noting that, while its true that the database had originally listed SVB as having donated about $73.5 million to the BLM Movement & Related Causes since 2020, Claremont Institute later amended the entry and removed funds that went toward an internal program within the bank to support diverse, emerging talent and gender parity because the spending predated 2020.

That brought the total to about $70.7 million, which is what well examine below.

SVB announced a plan in 2021 to invest $50 million in its diversity and inclusion programs over the following five years. In its 2021 Corporate Responsibility Report, SVB touted its Access to Innovation program, which had started in 2019 with the aim of increasing opportunities for underrepresented individuals in the innovation economy.

The program focuses on women, Black and Latinx individuals, according to the 2021 report. This includes hiring and mentoring, educational and networking opportunities, expanding access to capital and diversifying the venture capital (VC) ecosystem.

The report then said, We plan to invest $50 million in our programs and partnerships in the next five years to change more than 25,000 lives.

So, more than two thirds of the total amount the Claremont Institute listed was a pledged contribution to the banks effort to diversify the innovation economy through investments to underserved small-business owners and increase training and hiring opportunities for disadvantaged young people, specifically women, Blacks and Hispanics.

And, on top of that, the commitment was to spend $50 million on the program over the course of five years, but the bank folded just two years after making the pledge.

The next largest chunk identified by the Claremont Institute was $20 million, although its description of it is unclear. We asked for details about how they calculated the total, but the institute responded only with a prepared statement and didnt respond to follow-up questions.

Heres what the institute wrote in its explanation included in the database: SVB donated $20M in net fees paid to them by the Small Business Administrations Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to support additional COVID-19 relief; a new $5M, full-ride, needs-based University Scholarship program to students at four universities, including two HBCUs; economic development; and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts through 2022.

Well unpack that.

The Small Business Administration paid processing fees to lenders, like SVB, that provided Paycheck Protection Program loans to businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, a bank received a 5% fee on each loan of up to $350,000.

At the end of 2020, SVB gave $20 million of the amount it had collected in processing fees to its charitable foundation, the Silicon Valley Bank Foundation, for diversity and community causes over the next two years, according to the proxy statement issued by the bank ahead of its 2021 shareholder meeting. The proxy statement was included in Claremonts database.

The SVB Foundations 990 tax form, which is required of all registered nonprofit organizations, shows that the foundation in 2020 did receive a $20 million donation from the bank. But none of the foundations grants that year went to Black Lives Matter. According to the 990 filed for 2020, the foundation gave a total of $132,000 to 10 organizations, including a group supporting wildlife affected by the wildfires in Australia, a hospice care project and various childrens organizations. There are no more recent 990 forms available yet.

Later, in May 2021, SVB announced another initiative funded by fees it collected from the SBA for PPP loans. The bank said in a press release that it would commit $5 million to fund 25 full undergraduate scholarships at four universities Arizona State University, Tulane University, Florida A&M University and Xavier University of Louisiana. The last two, as the Claremont Institute noted, are historically Black universities.

The scholarships were open to anyone who met the financial need and academic performance criteria, according to the press release. SVB also said that it chose those four universities because of their direct and measurable impact to students, the majors and programs that align with SVBs future employment needs and their geographic distribution.

Its possible that the scholarship fund came out of the $20 million given to the SVB Foundation. But we cannot tell without reviewing more recent 990 forms, which are not available.

In any case, SVB did use money that it received for providing PPP loans for charitable causes, but theres no evidence that any of it went to Black Lives Matter.

Finally, the last portion of the total amount listed in the database for SVB was $650,000 in donations from SVB and its employees to various social justice organizations.

According to the Claremont Institutes explanation, SVB also created a 2:1 employee charitable gift matching program for donations supporting justice and equity for Black Americans, which raised nearly $400K. It allocated a further $250K from the SVB Foundation to support grants for social justice organizations including the NAACP, ACLU, and National Urban League. Notably missing from the institutes list is Black Lives Matter.

That breakdown is largely supported by SVBs 2020 Diversity, Equity & Inclusion brochure and its 2021 Corporate Responsibility Report, which the Claremont Institute included as support.

Corporate responsibility reporting is standard business practice in the Banking sector, according to a report from KPMG.

SVBs 2021 Corporate Responsibility Report said, In 2020, our employees rallied behind causes important to them and the communities they serve. Through one of several two-to-one giving opportunities, SVBers donated $401,188, which supplemented SVBs corporate donations to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, American Civil Liberties Union, National Urban League and Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

But neither the institute nor the bank show that any of the money from the matching program went to BLM.

And, regarding the $250,000 spent on supporting social justice organizations, that number comes from the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion brochure, which said, We also allocated $250k from the SVB Foundation to support grants for social justice organizations where SVB employees volunteer. The institute included the brochure in the database for support.

But, similarly, none of the organizations listed by either SVB or the Claremont Institute specify that Black Lives Matter was a recipient.

So, while its possible that some of the employee matching donations may have gone to BLM, none of the evidence provided by the Claremont Institute supports that.

When we reached out to the institute for more details, as we said, we were provided with a statement that said, in part (emphasis theirs), Claremonts BLM Funding Database tracks contributionsand pledgesmade to the BLM movementand related causes, which we define on our database as organizations and initiatives that advance one or more aspects of BLMs agenda, and which were made in the wake of the BLM riots of 2020.

Even so, its a stretch to include a needs-based college scholarship fund as a donation to the BLM movementand related causes. Similarly, including a pledge to increase economic diversity through a program the bank, itself, initiated also suggests that the threshold for what goes into the database is overly broad.

And, importantly, the database shows no contributions from SVB went to BLM.

So its just plain false to claim, as Breitbart did, that the total amount shown in the database more than $70 million represented how much SVB Gave Black Lives Matter.

Editors note:FactCheck.orgis one of several organizationsworking with Facebookto debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be foundhere. Facebook hasno controlover our editorial content.

Farley, Robert. What to Know About Trump-Era Bank Deregulation and Bank Failures. FactCheck.org. 16 Mar 2023.

Americans Deserve To Know Who Funded BLM Riots. Newsweek. 14 Mar 2023.

Center for the American Way of Life. Claremont Institute. BLM Funding Database. Accessed 15 Mar 2023.

Center for the American Way of Life. Claremont Institute. BLM Funding Database. Accessed 16 Mar 2023.

Silicon Valley Bank. Corporate Responsibility Report 2021. 2021.

Silicon Valley Bank. Press release. Silicon Valley Bank Introduces Access to Innovation to Increase Opportunities for Underrepresented People in the Innovation Economy. 1 Oct 2019.

Claremont Institute. Email response to FactCheck.org. 16 Mar 2023.

U.S. Department of the Treasury. Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Information Sheet Lenders. Accessed 16 Mar 2023.

Silicon Valley Bank. 2021 Proxy Statement. 4 Mar 2021.

Silicon Valley Bank Foundation. 990 2020. 8 Nov 2021.

Silicon Valley Bank. Press release. Silicon Valley Bank Expands COVID-19 Response & Community Support. 27 Apr 2020.

Silicon Valley Bank. Press release. SVB Financial Group Announces Full-Ride Undergraduate University Scholarship Program. 12 May 2021.

Silicon Valley Bank. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Aug 2020.

Silicon Valley Bank. Corporate Responsibility Report 2021. 2021.

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Diversity Programs Supported by SVB Wrongly Labeled as ... - FactCheck.org

Isnt it strange that none of us talk about Black Live Matter anymore? It felt like our lives were completely dominated by the subject in 2020.

Back then, The New York Times told us that Black Lives Matter May Be the Largest Movement in U.S. History. According to Wikipedia There were upward of 26 million protest participants.

That part is true. But everything else in the Black Lives Matter narrative begins to fall apart from there.

As reported by Time Magazine in September of 2020 The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) analyzed more than 7,750 Black Lives Matter protests in between May 26 and August 22.

In this story, we were told that fewer than 220 protests reported violent demonstrations among the protests. The report created a riot focused definition of violence. Then were told, 2,400 protests reported being peaceful.

For some reason we are told to ignore the widespread physical attacks on individuals and property at thousands of other protests. Like that isnt violent. Then adding insult to injury the mainstream political/media elite stealthily refused to tell us about the Marxist agenda of the Black Lives Matter leaders.

Marxism attempts to disrupt traditions and institutions that lend themselves to certain groups having more power or money than other groups. What Marxists describe as inequity most of us would simply describe as differences.

Marxism suggests that we must redistribute power, wealth, and status to make our society fairer. Which is fine. Americans have the right to subscribe to whatever ideology that they want.

But why lie about it? Back in 2015, Patrice Cullors describes BLM leaders saying, We are trained Marxists. In a video. No disputing that.

The next Black lives Matter Marxist tie was more disturbing. Under fire, Black Lives Matter scrubbed a page on its website demanding the disruption (of the requirement) of the Western-prescribed nuclear family. A position clearly articulated in Marxism.

Marxism co-founder Friedrich Engels wrote in The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, the modern family contains in germ not only slavery (servitus), but also serfdom, since from the beginning it is related to agricultural services, it contains in miniature all the contradictions which later extend throughout society and its state.

As if this level of deception wasnt enough, startling financial revelations began rocking the organization. In 2021, Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrice Cullors, left the organization after funneling millions into real estate holdings in her name.

Under her tenure, Cullors also authorized a six-figure payout to be given to her childs father for assorted reasons, made her brother BLMs highest paid employee (for security?) and paid $1.8 million to companies owned by her relatives.

This is not very equitable to other Black families in America. Do the rest of our Black Financial Lives Matter?

Meanwhile, the 26 Local Black Lives Matter chapters across the country took legal action against their lead organization accusing them of financial impropriety while raising over $90 million. They are suing for unpaid wages.

Arent Marxists supposed to distribute money fairly? Especially, to working class Black people? Or their own employees?

Even the families of the causes visible symbols Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown have filed lawsuits. They are demanding that they be compensated for the cause being perpetrated in their loved ones names. The family of Breonna Taylor hasnt sued yet but has meted out some harsh criticism for BLM. The Taylor family was denied by the leaders, the funds to buy a van to use for speaking engagements.

This Black Lives Matter movement needs to move away. From us.

The truth is, that no person of good conscience can object to the idea that Black lives matter as much as other lives. Its common sense.

Most agree that race cannot be a reason to kill anyone with impunity. But it is time to face that the original moral concern of Black Lives Matter has been exploited by greedy, oppressive leaders who are clearly dishonest.

Everything Marxism presents itself as against. Consequently, the scandals are overshadowing any progress of the movement. At this rate, in a few years there will little left besides the catchy slogan.

Rachel Stovall is an event manager, entertainer and community advocate in Colorado Springs.

Rachel Stovall is an event manager, entertainer and community advocate in Colorado Springs.

Originally posted here:
Black Lives Matter The lies, the scandals Stovall - Colorado Springs Gazette

WOODBRIDGE, VA.The plastic sign displayed prominently on DeAna Forbes classroom door is especially fitting this week. In big bold letters: Warning! History Teacher Zone. Your understanding of the past may be corrected at anytime.

Its early in this sleepy suburb 45minutes outside Washington, D.C., and the sun is still rising over Freedom High School as students jog inside from late-arriving buses, backpacks half-hung over shoulders with winter coats swinging. They push through crowded hallways and hurry to firstperiod.

Forbes, 28, who teaches U.S. history and social studies, is one of many teachers across the country participating in the annual Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action, held this year February 610. As her students settle in to watch avideo about the history of Black fraternities and sororities, Forbes prepares an interactivelesson.

The work of telling Black stories, celebrating diversity and inclusivity, and making sure that [students] understand that their lives do matter, is important, Forbes says. It naturally fits in the context ofhistory.

The Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action traces its roots to aBlack Lives Matter organizing campaign at John Muir Elementary in Seattle in 2016 and when, later that school year, educators in Philadelphia organized aweek of teaching surrounding the principles of Black Lives Matter. Teachers in Rochester also held aday of action in 2017. Then, in 2018, it exploded, with educators in more than 20 cities participating in the Week of Action, and it has remained popular sincethen.

Black Lives Matter at School is an act of resistance, says Awo Okaikor Aryee-Price, amember of the inaugural steering committee for Black Lives Matter at School. Its arefusal to accept the ways that we are perpetually dehumanized. Its astatement that we exist, that we are here, and that we are going to fightback.

During the week, teachers often share curriculum and host both virtual and in-person events. This year, events included afair about historically Black colleges and universities, an abolitionist poetry workshop, and an Imagination Lab Listening Project for students, teachers, parents and school staff to envision safe schools andfutures.

The week also centers around key movement demands, including ending zero tolerance policies, ending policing in schools and funding counselors instead, reducing the pushout of Black teachers, promoting restorative justice approaches to discipline, and mandating Black history and ethnic studiescourses.

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Go ahead and share with us, out loud, some things that youve learned so far about the Divine Nine, Forbes instructs, referring to her lesson on historically Black fraternities and sororities. She picks astudent sitting toward the back of theroom.

Theyre there to create social change for future generations, the student says eagerly, glancing up from the jotted-down notes in front ofhim.

Forbes classroom is decorated with artwork made by her studentsthose assigned to her classes, and others whove poked their heads in during free periods or after-school club activities. Earlier in the week, Forbes organized aschoolwide paint-and-sip as part of the Week of Action, in which students detailed on small canvases colorful interpretations of the Black power salute, ornate impressions of the Black Lives Matter slogan, and atraditional Sankofa symbol (from the Akan people of Ghana) meaning go back and getit.

This day, other teachers at Freedom High join in midway through the class to support Forbes lesson, answering questions about Delta Sigma Theta, Alpha Kappa Alpha and Zeta Phi Beta, all three of which were founded on the nearby Howard University campus by Black students in the early 1900s to promote public service, community, and politicalaction.

But the Week of Action is about more than classroom lessons. Earlier in the week, teachers throughout D.C. and the surrounding counties in Maryland and Virginia met at Creole on 14th, apopular brunch and happy hour spot in the busy, racially diverse neighborhood of Columbia Heights to call each other to action. Vanessa Williams, 31, who works as program manager for Teaching for Changes D.C. Area Educators for Social Justice, organized an unapologetically Black educator story lounge event with Empower Ed to offer teachers amicrophone to share personal narratives to highlight the importance of liberatory teachingpractices.

Oftentimes, were not present at the table when these decisions are being discussed about policy, legislation, et cetera, shared Gabrielle Dubose, an educator at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts and aspeaker at the story lounge. They need to hear fromteachers.

The theme of silence and resistance was mentioned repeatedly throughout thenight.

Its harder to do this work on an island or in asilo, Williams says. Its so important to center educators voicesgiving Black educators space where there are no stakes. This is not astaff meeting. Its an opportunity for people to relate to one another and find thatcommunity.

Events like the story lounge, and lessons like Forbes, are exactly what Aryee-Price had hoped for. Revolution stemming from class lessons, spilling out through the hallways and into the streets is exactly what Black Lives Matter Week of Action isabout.

This goes beyond just the week, says Aryee-Price. Its alifetime ofpractice.

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Black Educators Are Reimagining A Better School System - In These Times

When John Boyega gave an impassioned speech at a Black Lives Matter rally in June 2020, he worried it would ruin his career in movies.

"Black lives have always mattered. We have always been important. We have always meant something," he said.

"I don't know if I'm going to have a career after this, but f***that."

It was a rally to protest againstGeorge Floyd's murder at the hands of policethat sparked worldwide protests against police brutality.

Boyega, the star of Star Wars and Woman King, had not planned on speaking it just happened in the moment but it sparked global headlines.

"It was just so lovely to see that individuals watched it and they kind of get to know more of what you're about," he told ABC News.

"So that's definitely had huge, huge impacts."

But speaking out didn't end his career.Infact, itled to Boyega working with like-minded actors such asthe late Michael KWilliams, who he stars with in the upcoming bank robbery dramaBreaking.

"What's crazy is that Michael had seen the speech before coming on [toBreaking]and he really respected the words that came," Boyega said.

The actors worked closely together on set, and Boyega said Williams, who had a long acting career in critically acclaimed shows such asThe Wire and Boardwalk Empire,was "very influential" to him.

Breaking will be Michael K Williams's last film.He died in 2021 from a drug overdose.

Breaking is based on thetrue story of Brian Brown-Easley, a United States Marine Corpsveteranwho took several people hostage at a Wells Fargo bank branch in 2017.

Brown-Easley, played by Boyega, was seeking a payment he was owed from the US Department of Veteran Affairs. He struggled with mental health problems and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

To prepare for the role,Boyega said he extensively researched PTSD, studieddocumentation of the case, and spoke to people in Brown-Easley's life, including his ex-wife.

"It's the type of conversations you have when you just need to try to get to know somebody by imagining the person out there," Boyega said.

"So you know, what do they likeand dislike, tone of voice, the interests, life prospects, where they're at a certain stage, the struggles or obstacles."

Boyega said while he was shopping with his mother in Los Angeles, an army veteran approached him after seeing the film's trailer.

"He said that my character feels like him what he's been through and what he's going through now and symptoms of that," Boyega said.

"That, for me, just means that wow, this picture is going to be important.

"That's going to open them up into a new perspective to it, as well as showing them a mirror of what they've suffered themselves."

Breaking was produced by Boyega's production company, which he startedwith the aim of telling diverse and untold stories.

Boyega starred in British comedy-horror Attack the Block before shooting to mainstream stardom playing a stormtrooper with a conscience in 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Asked if he'd ever go back to Star Wars, he said the contract was over.

"That's done now. So it was [episodes] seven, eight, and nine," Boyega said.

"I was a fan before I was in it, so I kind of ascend to the glory of maybe I can call myself a super fan because I've been in it.

"So now I just watch the Mandalorian, and Obi Wan and the rest of the stuff they're doing, which has been really, really fun actually."

Breakingis available to watch or own from March 27.

The rest is here:
How John Boyega's Black Lives Matter speech connected him with the late Michael K Williams - ABC News

Social media is questioning the unity within the Blue Lives Matter movement after a white supremacist filmed himself repeatedly calling a Black cop the N-word while his colleagues watched.

White supremacist Jon Minadeo Jr. recently recorded himself repeatedly calling Black officer Darien Thomas the N-word during a police encounter in West Palm Peach, Florida, Atlanta Black Star reports

While Minadeo appeared to have an issue with all the officers, he took particular aim at Thomas because of his race.

White c*cks like you, I dont give a f*** about any of you fagg*ts, Minadeo says in the video. The only thing that is stopping us is that you have your badges on.

When Thomas made a statement to aid in Minadeo being given a citation for littering, thats when the white supremacist group leader racially targeted the officer.

..This n****r is getting in my face. I will get my ID but away from this n****r, he said.

Minadeo continued to try to get a rise out of Thomas by repeatedly telling him to shut up, n****r and claiming a Nazi science experiment created him.

This is the hard part, huh? When I call you a n****r to your face and you gotta act like a white man and detain yourself, he said.

Huh, n****r? This is hard for you, huh? Your low IQ wants to attack me over a word, n****r. You are a f*****g science experiment from a Jew.

While a white female officer was already writing Minadeo and his groups citation, none of the cops intervened during his racist verbal attacks. One Twitter user called out this while sharing the video on Twitter.

White supremacists dont give a damn if you got on the uniform, they tweeted. They will call you the N-word any Time any Place.

And you noticed the white cops did not do a damn thing to defend him. Florida, he added.

Many others reacted to the disturbing police encounter and applauded Thomas for his restraint during the racist attack.

The restraint is impressive, one viewer wrote. I guess their Blue Brother being racially attacked isnt offensive to them. I wish they couldve summoned similar control when that 14 year old black girl left a pool party.

Another viewer highlighted one white female officers smirk while Minadeo repeatedly called Thomas the N-word.

if youre not part of the solution, youre part of the problem. not one of his coworkers defended those racist attacks, they quipped.

yes, theres free speech but theres also disturbing the peace.. that racist definitely broke that law and shouldve been arrested but hes got the complexion, they added.

Minadeo was cited for littering last month and given a $163 fine, the Press Democrat reports. He has been active in Florida after relocating from California, where he is considered a well-known antisemitic agitator from Sonoma County.

Read the rest here:
Blue Lives Matter Called Out After White Supremacist Films Himself Calling Black Cop The N-Word - Black Enterprise