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BLM co-founder was quietly dumped by Warner Bros, no shows produced

May 27, 2023 | | Print Article

The latest stint at race-based profiteering may not have been quite as fruitful as Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors planned as the fate of her multi-year contract with Warner Bros. Television Group came to light.

In 2020, while businesses collectively suffered billions in damages from protesters along with COVID policies, chief rabble-rousers of the perpetual victim class managed to find themselves flourishing. For Cullors, that included inking a multi-year, multi-platform deal with Warner Bros. Television Group for an undisclosed amount.

Now, according to a report from the New York Post, that deal has since expired without any projects being produced.

A source familiar with the contract negotiations told the outlet, “The studio signed an overall deal with BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors at some point in 2020.”

“Deal expired at end of October 2022,” the source said and added, “The deal unfortunately did not result in any produced shows.”

Two years prior, it had been stated that Cullors’ deal included scripted and unscripted programming that would also feature animated and children’s content, as well as documentaries for broadcast, cable and streaming.

The activist had left her position with BLM Global Network in May 2021, reportedly to work on projects for Warner Bros. and her second book “An Abolitionist’s Handbook: 12 Steps to Changing Yourself and the World.”

However, as previously covered, the co-founder had cut ties with BLM just weeks after it had been revealed she had used her position to direct business to an art company run by the father of her child and that her grift had secured her the purchase of four homes at a total value of $3.2 million.

At the time she “decried what she called a smear campaign from a far-right group, but said neither that nor recent criticism from other Black organizers influenced her departure,” the Associated Press had reported.

Weeks later, another report found that Cullors’ non-profit group Dignity and Power Now, founded in 2013 to help non-white prisoners, had collected at least $225,000 in donations in 2016 but only reported $50,000 to the IRS. That amount did not meet the threshold that would have required filing a return and documenting spending and donations with the agency.

On numerous occasions, the BLM co-founder remarked that if she could have done more, she would have focused more effort on the infrastructure of the organization that she took credit for after parting ways.

“I’ve created the infrastructure and the support, and the necessary bones and foundation, so that I can leave,” she said upon leaving, which she also described as planned and not related to “right-wing attacks that tried to discredit my character.”

“The only regret I have with BLM is wishing that we could have paused for one to two years, to just not do any work and just focus on the infrastructure,” she told the AP in 2022. “The idea that (the foundation) received millions of dollars and then I hid those dollars in my bank account is absolutely false. That’s a false narrative. It’s impacted me personally and professionally, that people would accuse me of stealing from black people.”

The Post added that a year after Cullors’ production-less contract with Warner Bros., she purchased a 2,500-square-foot home in Los Angeles for $1.4 million.

Warner Bros. declined to comment while Cullors reportedly did not respond to the Post.

Kevin Haggerty
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