Top tech/media executives chose to support the violent Black Lives Matter movement through their campaign donations this year.
Twitter, Youtube, and Netflix donated thousands to the Baltimore mayoral campaign of activist Deray McKesson, who had raised over $240,000 on Wednesday, and received more in his first six weeks of campaigning than any other candidate.
McKesson, a black, gay man rose to prominence last year as one of the leading figures of the Black Lives Matter movement. He protested at Ferguson, Missouri and Charleston, South Carolina, where the hashtag #GoHomeDeRay began trending against him.
“Racism is alive and well in places like South Carolina, and in towns across America,” McKesson said at the time.
“So I’m here in solidarity like many other people who’ve come to express their sympathy for the victims,” he stated, “and to figure out how we fight systems of oppression that continue to kill people.”
His campaign finance disclosure, filed on Tuesday featured generous donations from tech giants.
Twitter executive chairman Omid Kordestani, Crowdpac cofounder Gisel Kordestani, Slack founder Stewart Butterfield and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings all contributed $6,000. YouTube executive Malik Ducard gave $2,500.
Black Lives Matter, founded by three black queer women, Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi, and Alicia Garza, is not as innocent as its name sounds. Violence and division are earmarks of the movement, which seems only to have aggravated the frustrations of black people in America.
McKesson is also committed to the LGBT agenda and education reform, an issue that may cause controversy in Baltimore, where charter schools employ unionized teachers and are closely linked to the district.
The now famous activist is running as a Democrat against more than a dozen others in the party primary. He will join Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey at the Code conference this year.
Supporting Black Lives Matter was the cool move for the powerful tech corporations, but the movement is dividing the country even more rather than helping us heal from the wounds of racism. The money donated to Deray McKesson’s campaign for mayor might have better spent on a candidate who does not endorse violence to protest violence.
