Rap, fashion, and media mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs defended rapper Kanye West wearing a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt at his Paris fashion show.
While not defending the message totally, Diddy nonetheless hailed West as a “super free thinker” during an appearance on The Breakfast Club with Charlamagne Tha God.
“My boy is a super, super, super free thinker,” Diddy said. “And a lot of times, what he means is, like, misconstrued, you know what I’m saying?”
Diddy agreed that the shirts were “very tone-deaf,” he ultimately felt that people should not condemn or cancel Kanye West for the statements.
“I understand white lives do matter, but it’s not that,” Diddy said.”[‘Black Lives Matter’] was our slogan. That wasn’t our slogan to go share with nobody else … Because right now, we’re the ones that are dying, that are incarcerated, that are left in poverty.”
“You have to be unapologetically black and love your people and love your tribe first,” he continued.
Kanye West received a torrent of criticism over his shirt, to which he responded by calling “Black Lives Matter” a scam in an Instagram post:
Everyone knows that
Black Lives Matter was a scam
Now it’s over
You’re welcome
Most recently, Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (GNF) executive Shalomyah Bowers has been accused of “siphoning” off more than $10 million from donors. In early September, the grassroots wing of the far-left activist organization (BLM Grassroots) alleged that Bowers “siphoned” the money to pay his consulting firm after he joined the board of the foundation.
“Bowers is accused of paying the cash to his own Bowers Consulting Firm, and diverting resources from a new group called Black Lives Matter Grassroots, Inc.,” according to the New York Post. “BLM Grassroots was launched three months ago, records show. It claims to represent BLM chapters across the country.”
Attorney Walter Mosley, who founded the grassroots group, said in the lawsuit filed that Bowers “could not let go of his personal piggy bank.”
“Instead, he continued to betray the public trust by self-dealing and breaching his fiduciary duties. Instead of using the donations for its intended purposes, Mr. Bowers diverted these donations to his own coffers and intentionally took calculated steps to prevent those same resources from being used by BLM for on-the-ground movement work,” the lawsuit claimed.
In May, Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors admitted to using the group’s $6 million property to host private parties after she had previously resigned from the organization amid scrutiny over her spending of charitable funds. As Breitbart News reported at the time:
One of those events took place in January 2021, where she apparently sought “refuge at the property amid threats on her life.” However, at that time, she chose to host an inauguration party celebrating the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, along with roughly 15 people, “including BLM Los Angeles chapter members and other prominent movement supporters,” according to the AP.
Two months later, Cullors threw her son a birthday party at the BLM property, but she told the outlet “she intended to pay a rental fee to the foundation.”
Tax documents filed with the IRS also showed that Cullors would spend lavish funds for her brother and child’s father to perform various services.
“The tax documents as seen by numerous media outlets reveal BLM paid a company owned by Damon Turner, the father of Cullors’ child, nearly $970,000 to help “produce live events” and provide other “creative services,’” noted Breitbart News.