Visa, Inc. Chairman Al Kelly Asked to Revoke Black Lives Matter Endorsement

October 30, 2023 at 07:40 AM EDT

--News Direct--

The following letter was sent today by Peter Flaherty, Chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, to Alfred F. Kelly, Jr., Executive Chairman of Visa, Inc.:

The Visa Inc. website still carries your July 15, 2020, endorsement of Black Lives Matter (BLM). We ask that it be taken down.

We raised the issue of your BLM support at the 2023 Visa, Inc. annual meeting, but you ignored us.

In the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, BLM has shown its true colors. There is more than one entity that calls itself BLM, but the movement has made it clear where it stands. Please be aware:

The Chicago chapter of BLM Grassroots tweeted imagery of a hang glider with a Palestinian flag, captioned “I Stand With Palestine.” Hang gliders were used by Hamas terrorists in the murder and hostage taking of innocent civilians attending the Tribe of Nova music festival.
The BLM Grassroots national organization issued a “Statement in Solidarity With the Palestinian People” against the backdrop of the Palestinian flag. It read in part, “When a people have been subject (sic) to decades of apartheid and unimaginable violence, their resistance must not be condemned, but understood as a desperate act of self-defense."
BLM Global Network Foundation (BLMGNF) co-founder Patrice Cullors, called for an “end of the imperialist project known as Israel” at Harvard Law School in 2015. Additionally, as detailed in a series of Complaints we filed with the Internal Revenue Service, BLMGNF is plagued by high living and self-dealing by its past and present leadership. Cullors, a self-proclaimed Marxist, resigned after we exposed the fact that she owned four homes.

In the past, you have been eager to involve Visa, Inc. in controversial issues that have nothing to do with the company’s core business, but you have not yet condemned the Hamas attack or antisemitism. We ask that you do so without further delay.

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