The Left Eats Their Own, Portland Edition: Wall of Moms Collapses, Accused of Anti-Blackness

Portland’s Wall of Moms has apparently fallen apart, after one of its founders decided to capitalize on the group’s new-found fame without the approval of other members of leadership. Pardon me, I’m going to need an industrial size vat of popcorn for this.

Hey team, by now y'all have heard about the drama unfolding. Lots of us are trying to regroup and do things the right way. No official announcements yet – standby. #BlackLivesMatter

— WOM OFFICIAL 🪧 (@WallOfMoms) July 29, 2020

That founder, Bev Barnum, filed for three separate business registrations on Tuesday, including one application for 501c3 status. She did this without the knowledge of other leaders, leading to explosive accusations that the white leaders of WOM had failed to keep their promise to secure black members during the Portland riots.

From OregonLive:

Portland Wall of Moms, a group formed in recent weeks and quickly recognized as a staple of nightly downtown protests, was accused publicly Wednesday of “anti-Blackness” by leaders of an existing, Black-led community group.

Wall of Moms, whose members said they aimed to support and protect other Black Lives Matter protesters near the fence in front of the federal courthouse, announced Friday that its white leadership had rescinded their positions to allow women of color to be in charge. New leaders announced Friday include Teressa Raiford, executive director of Don’t Shoot Portland, Demetria Hester and Danialle James.

But less than a week later, Don’t Shoot Portland took to Instagram to urge people against supporting the Wall of Moms, saying that it was no longer working with the moms group.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDO2rh_hNJR/?utm_source=ig_embed

Don’t Shoot PDX is a Black Lives Matter-affiliated group formed in Portland in the wake of the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, MO in 2014. Evidently, the white leadership of WOM agreed to give up their roles in favor of elevating black women as leaders. The business filings by Barnum were done without the knowledge of these new black leaders. Don’t Shoot PDX accused WOM of being more focused on protesting Trump and federal law enforcement in Portland than on black lives and BLM.

OregonLive had a few extra details:

In a comment Barnum appeared to post Wednesday morning on the private Wall of Moms Facebook group, she addressed the situation.

“The announcement of the 501c3 really hurt some of you,” she wrote. “That was never my intention. In fact, it was just the opposite. WOM will be led by a BIPOC board and BIPOC advisor committee. WOM is a group that supports BLM, not a BLM group. If that is not good enough for you, please feel free to leave this group. And if you currently volunteer your time, please feel free to leave your positions.”

A new Facebook group has formed called Moms United for Black Lives. A post from Faith Lightsy, a member of the group said she and others are in contact with Raiford, Hester and James to figure out what to do next.

“This group is only a few hours old with 3k members already…please be patient with us. I am in direct contact with Teressa and she has asked repeatedly this group be centered around Demetria and Danialle,” the post read.

So to break this down, essentially the Wall of Moms was not sufficiently black, and not sufficiently woke, and not sufficiently supportive of BLM.

Read more