Rashad Turner, Ex-BLM Leader, Calls Out Group, Says It Doesn't Care About Black Families

The founder of a Minnesota Black Lives Matter chapter said he turned his back on the organization because "the ugly truth" is the group's leaders don't care about Black families.

Rashad Turner, who is now executive director of the Minnesota Parent Union, stressed the need for education in helping Black families change their lives "for the better." Turner, who was founder of the St. Paul chapter of the group in 2015, said he left after just two years when he realized BLM leaders were issuing statements against teachers' unions and even the nuclear family structure. Turner released a video Wednesday last week that described his falling out with BLM for not caring about "improving the quality of education for students" across the state.

"In 2015 I was a founder of Black Lives Matter in St. Paul. I believed the organization stood for exactly what the name implies, black lives do matter," said Turner, a Minneapolis native, who relayed the story of his father being shot and killed when he was two years old.

"However, after a year on the inside, I learned they have little concern for rebuilding Black families, and they cared even less about improving the quality of education for students in Minneapolis. That was made clear when they publicly denounced charter schools, alongside the teachers' union. I was an insider in Black Lives Matter, and I learned the ugly truth: The moratorium on charter schools does not support rebuilding the Black family, but it does create barriers to a better education for Black children," Turner continued in the video, also released by the nonprofit TakeCharge Minnesota.

The official Black Lives Matter website was embroiled in controversy last summer in the wake of George Floyd's death after it scrubbed a statement that denounced the "Western-prescribed nuclear family structure."

"I didn't quit working to improve Black lives, and access to a great education," Turner said in the video. "Today, I serve as the president and executive director of Minnesota Parent Union. We're dedicated to helping parents move their children from failing schools to successful schools."

The BLM Global Network Foundation website stated, in remarks that have since been deleted, that the "fight for freedom, liberation and justice" can only occur through the disruption of such family units and an embrace of a more "village-like" Black communities. Traditional words for parents like "fathers" were deliberately avoided and replaced with gender-neutral terms for parents.

At last year's Republican National Convention, former NFL player Jack Brewer warned the conservative audience that the organization "openly on their website calls for the destruction of the nuclear family. My fellow Americans, our families need each other. We need Black fathers in the homes with their wives and children."

Newsweek reached out to Black Lives Matter representatives in the Twin Cities for additional reaction or response to Turner's comments.