There are many different angles one can take while wading into the extensive database of corporate supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement released by the Claremont Institute this month. But the first impression may be the most startling.
That would be the sheer scope of the money spigot BLM tapped in to inside the major American and US-based multinational business community. From significant banks to popular stores to name brands, the big-corporate rush to feed the radical frenzy following the death of George Floyd in 2020 runs a vast gamut. Claremont put the grand total of the shakedown at more than $83 billion.
Big Green From Big Banks
Let’s start with leading financial institutions – big banks and powerful private equity investment firms. Begin at the top of the alphabet, and it won’t take long to see American Express and the astonishing donation of $50 million. But that only makes the credit card giant look rather paltry by the time one gets to the letter B. Bank of America, a longtime supporter of leftist social causes, doled out a stunning $18.25 billion.
Other notable banking industry corporations in the database included:
- Capital One Financial – $10 million
- CitiGroup – $1.1 billion
- PNC Financial Services – $1.05 billion
- US Bancorp and US Bank – $619 million
- Wells Fargo – $210 million
There is one, however, that stands out above all. Silicon Valley Bank, which suffered a spectacular collapse in early March that shook the banking industry to its core, is listed as having donated $70.65 million to BLM. This revelation immediately sent the dominant media “fact checkers” into action.
(Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Claremont stated that its database included donations and pledges made to BLM “and related causes.” It defined that latter term as “organizations and initiatives that advance one or more aspects of BLM’s agenda, and which were made in the wake of the BLM riots of 2020.”
The woefully compromised Poynter Institute’s PolitiFact team’s approach sums up the big-box media spin. “Black Lives Matter is not one entity with a set agenda. It is a decentralized international activist movement with no formal hierarchy,” is step one.
“A prominent Black Lives Matter organization, Black Lives Matter Global Foundation Network, told PolitiFact in a statement that the Black Lives Matter movement includes thousands of organizations, so there is no way for the group to say with certainty whether Silicon Valley Bank donated to any one of them,” is step two.
This leads to the predetermined conclusion: “A close look at the Claremont list shows that Silicon Valley Bank’s charitable contributions went primarily to groups and initiatives with no clear association to the Black Lives Matter movement. We rate this claim false.”
What is notable about the Poynter effort is that it implicitly acknowledges that the BLM name is a severe liability today by trying so strenuously to decouple Silicon Valley from it. We’ve gone from imperious demands that American corporations must fund BLM to “no, they didn’t actually do that” in less than two years.
Back to the database.
Leading private equity/investment/money management firms listed include:
- BlackRock – $810 million
- Carlyle Group – $10 million
- Goldman Sachs – $10.11 billion
- JPMorganChase – More than $30 billion
- MorganStanley – $30 billion
- Rowe Price – $7.5 million
But these are far from the only sources of the BLM windfall. Companies that own brands beloved by millions of Americans were overwhelmingly involved. A couple that might be especially surprising to conservatives are Chick-fil-A ($6.2 million) and Costco ($25 million).
Black Lives Matter Is Everywhere
Here are a few more names that are part of the everyday lives of hundreds of millions of Americans:
- 3M (Ace bandages, Scotch-Brite, and Post-it adhesive notes) – $50 million
- Aflac Insurance – $25 million
- Allstate Insurance – $7.7 million
(Photo by Michael Wade/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
- AutoZone – $5 million
- Boeing – $15.6 million
- Campbell’s Soup – $1.5 million
- Chipotle – $1 million
- Coca-Cola – $4 million
- DoorDash – $1 million
- Electronic Arts – $3.6 million
- Enterprise Rent-A-Car – $85 million
- Foot Locker – $200 million
- General Mills (Cheerios, Haagen-Dazs, Pillsbury products) – $40.75 million
- General Motors – $10 million
- HanesBrands – $2.05 million
- Home Depot – $12 million
- Lowe’s – $40 million
- Nordstrom – $5 million
- Pepsi Co. – $400 million
- Publix Supermarkets – $1 million
- Quaker Oats – $5 million
- State Farm Insurance – $100 million
- Target – $110 million
- T-mobile – $25 million
- Walmart – $100 million
Hate the monopoly AT&T and Comcast have over much of the cable TV/Internet provider market in the United States today? Both donated massive amounts to BLM, $21.5 million for AT&T and $165 million for Comcast.
Unsurprisingly to anyone who has been paying attention to the woke takeover of professional sports in recent years, major leagues abound in the database:
- MLB – $150 million
- MLS – $1 million
- NBA – $300 million
- NFL – $250 million
- PGA Tour – $100 million
(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The pharmaceutical industry has enjoyed a wildly successful run in recent years thanks in large part to the coronavirus pandemic and the government-backed pressure campaign to vaccinate the world. Big Pharma and aligned health care companies are well represented in the BLM database:
- Abbott Laboratories – $25 million
- AbbVie – More than $62 million
- Amgen – $7.5 million
- CVS Health – $600 million
- Eli Lilly and Company – $58 million
- Gilead Sciences – $30 million
- Johnson & Johnson – $110 million
- Kaiser Permanente – More than $26 million
- Merck – $29.7 million
- Pfizer – $7.2 million
Several of these names have been known for a while, and many more were to be expected, given previous social justice posturing. But it is the sheer size of the corporate network that BLM was able to plug into that jumps out here. A radical movement that calls for the abolishment of capitalism as one of its goals was able to leverage the 2020 Summer of George Floyd into compelling more than 400 major US companies and others doing extensive business in this nation into funding its extremism. What does this say about the state of corporate America today?
