The amount of money given over to Black Lives Matter (BLM) since it was conceived after the impact of the Ferguson, Mo., riots is staggering. The riots of the summer of 2020 solidified BLM as a strong horse in the political space. It continues to have influence, though the group is much diminished following the discovery of misuse of millions of dollars by BLM leaders to buy multiple houses and other properties. Black Lives Matter is, as the Claremont Institute calls it, an organized “pressure campaign” engaging in “moral blackmail.” The highest corporate and political leadership in this country was only too happy to pay indulgences rather than face the group’s wrath.

The Claremont Institute, a conservative institution that seeks to “form a new Right and reclaim America’s institutions” turns out some of the most recognizable names in conservatism. Its Center For The American Way Of Life used its intellectual firepower to collect a database of corporate America’s obeisance to “possibly the most lucrative shakedown of corporate America in its history.”

The Claremont, Calif., institute explains in Newsweek that while “most Americans have happily moved on from the 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM)-driven ransacking of some 200 American cities, which resulted in as much as $2 billion in property damage and at least 25 deaths,” the legacy of the shakedown lives on. The story needs to be told in its astonishing breadth.

The New York Times says BLM raised $90 million and, as of 2022, had $42 million in assets on the books. But Claremont Institute’s database claims the group got far more than that during its heyday. Indeed, BLM was promised “an astonishing $82.9 billion to the BLM movement and related causes. This includes more than $123 million to the BLM parent organizations directly.” Claremont points out that such potential fundraising is greater than the GDP of “most African nations.” The figures, “while shocking, likely underrepresent the true magnitude of the shakedown as some companies failed to make known their contributions, and many BLM organizations remain unknown.”

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Claremont reiterates the BLM Marxist revolutionary goals to “undermine capitalism, the nation state, and Western civilization.” And it does so through its decentralized web of organizations.

At the head are the two BLM parent organizations, the aforementioned Global Network and the Movement for Black Lives, an even more radical outfit that supports a collective of more than 150 ideologically aligned revolutionary organizations. Further downstream are the local BLM chapters, which do the movement’s heavy lifting, and BLM At School, which seeks to defeat the “imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.”

And giving them the air they breathe are the same fearful or woke corporations, such as Silicon Valley Bank, who recently managed to help crash the economy with its bad management combined with bad monetary policy. It’s a win-win for the Left.

Claremont says America’s banks are putting their money where their virtue signals are by “issuing billions of dollars in subprime loans ‘to help end systemic racism,’ and corporations are funding leftist bail funds that release violent rioters and criminals onto our streets…”

Among the biggest givers to BLM, according to Claremont, is “JPMorgan Chase—whose $30 billion ‘Racial Equity Commitment’ includes billions in targeted investments to ‘close the racial wealth gap.'” And Microsoft gave $250,000 to bail out BLM rioters in Minnesota.

But look at the hundreds of millions in commitments offered by Abbott Labs — $25 million, and Adidas has pledged $120 million. The database notes when the money is spent once it’s publicly noted.

AFLAC committed $25 million, AIG came up with half a mil, the Alliance for Global Justice gave $36,403,089, Albertsons gave $5 million, and Allstate committed to $7.7 mil. Amazon gave BLM and its subsidiaries $169,550,000.

And that’s just part of the first page of this database.

Bed Bath and Beyond, which is teetering on bankruptcy, offered up $1 million to BLM. The My Pillow Guy is a no-go, but BLM rioters are just fine with BBB. Maybe that’s what “Beyond” means.

Mitt Romney’s old Bain and Company gave $110 million to BLM. Bank of America gave a heart-stopping $18,250,000,000 — that’s 18 billion-plus dollars, if you can’t believe your own eyes. Blackrock signed up to give $810 million.

That’s a lot of protection money to pay.

And they say Mexican cartels are corrupt.