WHEN AMAZON kicked Black Lives Matter off their charity platform last week the media were quick to imply guilt without hearing the organisation’s side of the story.

The issue at hand – the late filing of charity returns – swiftly turned into sensational headlines questioning “where $60 million had gone.”

Amazon did not say they suspected fraud, merely that they were following procedure when a charity does not declare their accounts in line with US state deadlines.

That did not stop journalists conflating the story with previous questions about the “property empire” of BLM founder Patrisse Cullors to heavily suggest wrongdoing.

Newspapers appeared singularly uninterested in Black Lives Matter’s explanation. It is almost as if they do not qualify for a right of reply.

Malcolm X famously said: “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”

It is obvious why this is happening; implying that the organisation Black Lives Matter is corrupt taints the whole social movement and everything it stands for.

There is every reason to be suspicious of efforts to destroy the credibility of Black Lives Matter, not least in the eyes of its own supporters.

We saw similar tactics deployed in London, with the Evening Standard campaign against Lee Jasper in 2007.

Jasper, who was race equality advisor to the then-mayor Ken Livingstone, faced a barrage of headlines suggesting he was corrupt.

Yet after Boris Johnson beat Livingstone, three subsequent investigations found no evidence of fraud or corruption by Jasper. 

The only fraud was the propaganda campaign based on a tissue of lies and exaggeration which Londoners were bombarded with.

Even parts of the black community were taken in by the misinformation. There’s so much smoke coming out of the media there must be a fire, many concluded. 

Only there wasn’t a fire. And so the theory of the ‘Big Lie’ – that if you shout something loud enough and with confidence not only will others join in but even normally sensible people will suspend their disbelief to buy into the lie – worked once again.

When the heat is on we sometimes forget that Chuck D said: “Don’t believe the hype.”

Not only did power change hands at City Hall, but it changed the course of history as Johnson went on to arguably swing Brexit and then become Prime Minister.

The collateral damage was the anti-racism movement, which took an almighty battering, losing confidence in itself. It took over a decade for Black civil rights to reemerge in the form of Black Lives Matter in 2020.

The Evening Standard campaign played on the stereotype of an uppity black “street hustler” misusing power and money, and the same playbook we see used against top BLM figures in the US.

Malcolm X famously said: “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”

His words are apt today. Black Lives Matter is a grassroots movement that stands for systemic change to a capitalist system that is riddled with corruption, fraud and exploitation.

Millions in corporate donations to Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has not changed the demands of the people to dismantle racial justice. 

Those demands are clear; tokenism of diversity and inclusion initiatives are not enough, we need fundamental structural reform to a system that creates billionaires and entrenches poverty.

Now the white privileged men who run that system are smearing a black-led civil rights movement because BLM hasn’t accounted for all the money they gave them.

We don’t know if there has been any fraud or grifting at BLM. But the history of official misinformation about black leaders and their financial affairs tells me to be highly sceptical.

The honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey was convicted and jailed for mail fraud in 1919 in a trumped-up case to discredit his politics.

Almost every black leader in the history of the West who poses a threat to the interests of the establishment has been accused of crime at some point. It goes with the territory.

It also serves as a diversion from the corruption of politicians. Witness the many attacks on Black Lives Matter from British ministers in a government drowning in sleaze.

And a diversion from the sins of corporate bosses, like Jeff Bezos of Amazon, who union-bust and exploit workers in the manner of Victorian factory owners.

Who amongst them has never filed a late tax return? Donald Trump never published a tax return during four long years in the White House.

So what that BLM are late with their returns. There could be a number of reasons for this, not least financial disorganisation.

None of the possible explanations have been considered in the rush to imply fraud. Little or no effort has gone into getting BLM’s side of the story.

Even if there has been grifting by people in the organisation, this clearly does not reflect on the wider movement.

Black Lives Matter, the movement, has taken us a forward. We have come too far with BLM to turn around now.

We need to not only continue to move forward but also consolidate the gains, protect them from the backlash of those who seek to undermine the agenda.

GB News let the cat out of the bag when they claimed suggestions of fraud undermined the entire politics and agenda of Black Lives Matter.

That’s what it is all about. So don’t believe the hype, not without clear proof of wrongdoing. Let’s keep hating the people doing the oppressing.