'Black Lives Matter Is Not A Black-Owned Business': George Soros Pledges $220M Towards BLM Initiatives

BLM is not a Black Owned Business https://t.co/FMF9LCf9lX

— Darren J. Beattie 🌐 (@DarrenJBeattie) July 13, 2020

Of the $220 million, the foundation will invest $150 million in five-year grants for selected groups, including progressive and emerging organizations like the Black Voters Matter Fund and Repairers of the Breach, a group founded by the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II of the Poor People's Campaign. The money will also support more established Black political organizations like the Equal Justice Initiative, which was founded by the civil rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson and depicted in the 2019 movie "Just Mercy."

The Open Society Foundations will invest an additional $70 million in local grants supporting changes to policing and criminal justice. This money will also be used to pay for opportunities for civic engagement and to organize internships and political training for young people.

"This is the time for urgent and bold action to address racial injustice in America," said Alex Soros, deputy chair of the Open Society Foundations. "These investments will empower proven leaders in the Black community to reimagine policing, end mass incarceration, and eliminate the barriers to opportunity that have been the source of inequity for too long."

Alex told me that for many years, his father had not been eager to advertise his Judaism because "this was something he was almost killed for." But he had always "identified firstly as a Jew," and his philanthropy was ultimately an expression of his Jewish identity, in that he felt a solidarity with other minority groups and also because he recognized that a Jew could only truly be safe in a world in which all minorities were protected. Explaining his father's motives, he said, "The reason you fight for an open society is because that's the only society that you can live in, as a Jew — unless you become a nationalist and only fight for your own rights in your own state."