Defund BLM
At their April 13, 2021 regular meeting, the Asheville City Council unanimously approved their Resolution 21-68. This resolution authorized the city manager to “donate” $949,185.12 in tax dollars to a pair of nonprofits to further racial equity causes:
$474,592.58 was “donated” to CoThinkk, who exists to provide grants and awards to BIPOC leaders and causes in Asheville. You can read CoThinkk’s 2020 BLM solidarity statement for more information about this organization, which is supported by council member Kim Roney and co-founded by vice-mayor Sheneika Smith. How is this NOT a conflict of interest?
The second $474,592.58 was “donated” to the Asheville City Schools Foundation and used to fund the City of Asheville Scholarship, which will assist only non-white students and teachers in paying advanced education tuition. Well, that violates Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
First Tuesday was conducting research for this article when we found that a conservative nonprofit, Judicial Watch, was making a public records request related to the same topic. In an alliance with Dr. Carl Mumpower’s WNC Citizens for Equality, Inc., Judicial Watch and the Legal Insurrection Foundation filed a lawsuit in federal court in North Carolina that challenges the donation to ACSF on grounds that the scholarship discriminates against white students. You can read the court filing here.
Thank you, Dr. Mumpower, for initiating this effort. Racism is racism, regardless of against whom it is being directed.
We are aware of no law that prohibits a municipality from “donating” dollars to a nonprofit, and we are also unaware of any efforts to retrieve the half million dollars that the city council handed over to CoThinkk. Do Asheville citizens know how much control Black Lives Matter has over our city? Look at BLM’s seven demands to see what we, by proxy, are supporting. Maybe we should consider a “Defund BLM” protest?
