Rashad Turner, the founder of a Black Lives Matter chapter in St. Paul, Minnesota, recently shared that he quit the organization after learning “the ugly truth” while being inside it. His remarks were published in a video by TakeCharge, a Black-led organization that rejects Critical Race Theory and woke culture.
Turner started off by saying he was ‘living proof’ that no matter what your childhood was like, quality education is a pathway to success. Even though his father was shot and killed and his mother couldn’t take care of him, he worked hard in school, got into Hamlin University, and eventually earned a master’s in education from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota.
Turner explained that he wanted the same success for children in his communities. He became a founder of Black Lives Matter in St. Paul in 2015, saying that he believed in the organization and what the name implies. But after a year inside, Turner said that BLM had little concern for rebuilding black families and even less about improving the education for students in Minneapolis, especially when they 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. I resigned from Black Lives Matter after a year and a half. But I didn’t quit working to improve black lives and access to a great education,” Turner said.
Turner currently serves as the President and Executive Director of the Minnesota Parent Union, where they are dedicated to helping parents move children from failing schools to successful ones. They have also continued to fight against BLM’s larger political agenda, which was deleted from their “What We Believe” section of its site.
BLM Global Network Foundation previously declared its goals for freedom, liberation, and justice through disrupting the “Western-prescribed nuclear family structure.” The group says that the male influence on the family environment is “oppressive” and that they want to build a space where Black women are free from sexism and misogyny, and environments where men aren’t centered.
But organizations like TakeCharge have continued to restore the two-parent Black family. “Did you know … black students living with both married parents had suspension rates that not only were less than half as large as those for other blacks, but also less than the suspension rate for white students from families that weren’t intact?” They shared in a tweet.
The group also cited a 2019 study from the Institute for Family Studies that found unstable family structures, including chaotic households and single-parent homes, were a primary factor in racial disparities in school behaviors and suspensions. The study cites that social and psychological problems in youth may manifest at school but have origins in family situations.
“This is especially noteworthy because discussions related to racial disparities in school discipline often overlook the role of family structure and highlight socioeconomic explanations,” the study concludes.
TakeCharge founder Kendal Qualls shared that it’s “insulting” to hear that Black people can’t get ahead because of systemic racism and said that the organization wants to ignite a transformation within the Black community by “embracing the core principles of America – not rejecting them.” Take Charge follows the beliefs of hard work, education, faith, family, and free enterprise in the personal pursuit of dreams “that can be realized by anyone regardless of race or social standing.”
As Denzel Washington famously said: It’s not the color, it’s the culture. More people are seeing BLM for the ‘woke nonsense’ it really is.