AMAC Exclusive – By Aaron Flanigan
In a brand new database, the Claremont Institute, a California-based conservative think tank, assessed hundreds of corporations’ pledges and contributions to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and other related left-wing causes, shedding new light on who funded the riots that devastated many U.S. cities in the summer of 2020.
The Black Lives Matter Funding Database, which assesses the contributions of hundreds of American companies, found that an astounding $83.1 billion have been given to BLM and related initiatives since 2020, which the Institute says is “more than the GDP of 46 African countries.”
The database, launched on March 14, is the first such initiative targeting the BLM movement, which played a significant role in fueling the mass riots in America’s cities in 2020 and, among other radical policy prescriptions, has vowed to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure.”
The leaders of the BLM movement are also notoriously corrupt. Tax filings last year revealed that one of the organizations co-founders dished out hundreds of thousands of dollars to her family members for obscure “creative services.” Another one of the group’s leaders allegedly bought a $6 million mansion with charity funds.
“Until the release of Claremont’s BLM database, there has been no systematic attempt to collate and centralize corporate giving to the greatest shakedown of the American economy by left-wing activists,” the press release said. “We hope that the information brought to light by our database proves useful to those wishing to hold companies accountable for their actions.”
“The politics of racial grievance and anti-meritocracy are indeed profitable, and have been brought to us, as it turns out, by some of the biggest name-brand corporations in the world. Everyone from Coca-Cola to Google is complicit,” the press release continued.
Implicated companies include corporate giants like JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Bank of America, Starbucks, Target, PayPal, and the recently collapsed Silicon Valley Bank.
The database was funded by the Institute’s recently opened Washington, D.C.-based Center for the American Way of Life, the mission of which is to defend “republican self-government against the existential threat of identity politics.”
Among the biggest contributors to BLM, according to the database, is JPMorgan Chase, which pledged $30 billion to its so-called “Racial Equity Commitment,” which directs billions of dollars in investments to closing “the racial wealth gap” and building “diversity into the supply chain.” Microsoft pledged $244 million to similar initiatives, including $250,000 to bail out rioters during the George Floyd riots of 2020.
Notably, Claremont found that the Silicon Valley Bank—which collapsed just days before the release of the database—donated more than $70 million to BLM-adjacent organizations. In an August 2020 report from the group, the Bank’s CEO wrote that the group would emphasize its commitment to causes like “social justice, sustainability, and supporting women, Black and Latinx emerging talent, and other underrepresented groups.”
As Claremont notes, these corporate contributions come with drastic implications for shareholders and will likely make companies vulnerable to lawsuits based on breaches of fiduciary duty.
“This redistribution of corporate wealth—wealth that rightly belongs to shareholders, including pensioners and retirees, and that should have been used for increased wages, dividends, stock buybacks, capital investment, or research and development—is historic, and may be viewed as a form of reparations made to self-declared enemies of the American nation and way of life,” the group said. “And such a wealth transfer is inconceivable without BLM.”
The Institute also proposed several ways Congress and other federal actors can begin to buck the trend of corporate giving to radical left-wing causes.
“There are several ways to address this threat, including reining in corporate ‘charitable’ giving, reforming nonprofit law, and freeing companies from the clutch of ESG. Any of these will require action by regulators or Congress, both of which have proven spineless,” the Claremont Institute wrote in a Newsweek op-ed. “Casting light on the issue is the first step toward fixing the problem, but the work has just begun.”
Corporate America’s commitment to so-called “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” standards over its fiduciary duty to shareholders is regrettably nothing new. But by shedding light on the remarkable extent to which the advancement of leftist social causes and street activism are now driving forces in corporate life, this database is giving the American consumer a much-needed opportunity to hold these companies accountable and force them back to their proper, apolitical place in American life.
The BLM Funding Database can be accessed here.
Aaron Flanigan is the pen name of a writer in Washington, D.C.
