Jason Lee disagrees with Ye (formerly Kanye West) that Black Lives Matter is a fraud.
In an interview with Insider, Lee backed Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, referring to her as, “A woman who started a global movement and maybe wasn’t as ready to understand the infrastructure that needed to be built.”
Lee is the founder of the entertainment website Hollywood Unlocked and a former labor activist. In May 2022, he interviewed Black Lives Matters co-founder Patrisse Cullors on the site’s podcast.
Lee has also previously partnered with Ye, who recently wrote, “Everyone knows that Black Lives Matter was a scam now it’s over, you’re welcome,” in his Instagram stories on October 4 — as the head of Donda Media before the two parted ways.
On September 29, Lee told Insider that he no longer speaks for West.
“Part of controlling your narrative is you being able to be your own storyteller,” said Lee to Insider. “I’m not going to tell his tale; I’m going to let him tell his own.”
He addressed the end of their professional partnership in a live video when Ye wore a White Lives Matter shirt during Paris Fashion Week. “Kanye’s post does nothing but serve up white supremacy on a platter to them. It does nothing for us,” he said during the stream.
“There are similarities and very big differences between me and Ye,” he told Insider.
Kanye West’s spokesman, Jason Lee, has quit, saying West was “gaslighting Black people and empowering white supremacy”.
— Linda (@exgci) October 5, 2022
Lee characterizes as a “witch hunt” the criticism leveled at Cullors and Black Lives Matter.
“Black Lives Matter” is a popular social media theme emphasizing the importance of Black lives. It’s also the name of a global organization with various branches that describes itself on its website as a “Black-centered political will and movement building effort.” Cullors co-founded Black Lives Matter with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi, and the movement has branches in various nations.
According to the Associated Press, Black Lives Matter has been accused of financial improprieties, which Cullors denies, and has drawn criticism for a $6 million complex in Los Angeles that the organization claims it wants to develop into a college for Black artists. Cullors has also been accused of misusing the organization’s funds to buy personal property, which she denies.
She resigned from the group in 2021, but she said it was unrelated to the charges and had been planned for some time.
“It turned into this whole witch hunt, which is crazy,” Lee said, speaking of the criticism against Cullors. “Because if you run a $90-million organization, you should be able to own a million-dollar house, a million-dollar house sounds like a lot but it really isn’t. I just feel like it was a witch hunt.”
Black Lives Matter is not the only charitable group whose finances and those of its executives and founders have been called into question. According to The Times of London, payments made to the leadership team of One Young World are presently being scrutinized. The Susan G. Korman foundation was publicly questioned about its money on executive salaries in 2013.
During Lee’s podcast interview with Cullors, the two explored the history of Black Lives Matter and her involvement in its development. She also described her job outside the organization, which included teaching, authoring books, and generating exclusive material with Warner Media.
“She launched it; it kind of grew from under her feet,” said Lee.
Cullors told Insider when sought for comment: “Jason Lee is a brilliant strategist and media maker. His work with Black Hollywood Unlocked is game-changing. I was grateful he sat with me at such a critical time in my life. Compassionate but firm Black media is what we need right now, especially in the age of misinformation and disinformation.”
Curious to know what Ye and Lee’s ‘parting of the way’ entails? Let us know!
Hollywood Unlocked, Lee’s website that covers pop culture, is now covering politics.
“I always like fighting for the underdog because I feel like as Black people, we’re always the underdog,”
Lee described the moment he decided to widen the site he founded to be “the pulse of pop culture” to include politics: “I saw them literally squeeze the life out of George Floyd by standing on his neck,” he claimed.
Lee was affected by the eight minutes and 46 seconds.
“I was like, ‘Yo, I have a voice,'” he continued. “A voice has a responsibility so I have to broaden my content to cover this stuff more. I need to use my visibility.”
Similar sites, such as The Shade Room and Bossip, have begun to include more politics in their coverage as well. They have interspersed screenshots of racist statements by lawmakers and coverage of community projects with their reporting on rap beefs and exposing star spouses. Sites like Lee’s can flip rapidly since they are tiny organizations with direct ties with their viewers.
Lee said, “We’re an outlier that can change the narrative at any moment with a story that we put out,”
“We’ve been trying to figure out how do we continue as Hollywood Unlocked to expand our ability to educate not just celebrities but businesses, brands and otherwise, how to communicate better to the culture,” he continued.
Jason Lee, who disagrees with Kanye West, labels the “black lives matter” movement a hoax. Patrisse Cullors, the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, was chastised in his interview.
A woman who established a global movement but was unprepared for its challenges. Lee’s video interview with Cullors focused on the beginnings of the Black Lives Matter movement and her role in its formation.
Jason Lee is a great media strategist and producer. With his website ‘Hollywood Unlocked,’ he transformed the industry. We need strong black media in this day and age of misdirection and deception.
