Rashad Turner went from advocating for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement in St. Paul, Minnesota by founding its local chapter to condemning it after he realized they were not concerned about Black families and empowering Black students through education.
Turner, who is now the president and executive director of the school choice advocacy group, Minnesota Parent Union, released a video to speak out about the "ugly truth" behind BLM.
"I believed the organization stood for exactly what the name implies. Black lives do matter," Turner declared in the video, as reported by the Christian Post. "However, after a year on the inside, I learned they have little concern for rebuilding black families, and they cared even less for improving the quality of education for students in Minneapolis."
Turner founded the St. Paul, Minnesota chapter of Black Lives Matter back in 2015, but left and founded the Minnesota Parent Union, which describes themselves as "advocacy resource for families, establishing connections within schools and between families, as well as engaging families in co-creating a globally competitive educational experience for their children."
A Minneapolis native, the former BLM chapter founder is an advocate for education. He was raised by his grandparents after his father was killed and his mom could not care for him. It was his parents who taught him the value of education, which he now credits for his success. He believes that "success is possible" when there is "great education" to "break the chains of poverty and lead a life of success."
Turner assumed that the Black Lives Matter would share his ideals about education for Black youth, but soon found that the organization was not concerned about improving educational opportunities for Black kids. This is why he left the Minnesota BLM chapter he founded after just 18 months.
"That was made very clear when they publicly denounced the charter schools alongside the teachers' union," Turner argued. "The moratorium on charter schools does not support rebuilding the black family, but it does create barriers for a better education for black children."
The BLM chapter founder admitted, "I was an insider in Black Lives Matter, and I learned the ugly truth."
According to Newsweek, a now-deleted section in the BLM Global Network Foundation website said that the "fight for freedom, liberation and justice" is only possible through the disruption of the family unit and the acceptance of "village-like" Black communities. They were also pushing for gender-neutral terms for parents, instead of traditional words such as "father," which indicated gender.
During last year's Republican National Convention, ex NFL athlete Jack Brewer condemned the BLM for calling on the demolition of the American nuclear family. Brewer argued that families "need Black fathers in the homes with their wives and children."
The New York Post argued in July of 2020 that BLM has a "radical Marxist agenda." A month later, Politifact found evidence that one of three BLM co-founders admitted that she and another co-founder were "trained Marxists."
