Black Lives Matter organizer and Oprah scholarship recipient has been outed as white
Black Lives Matter organizer and Oprah scholarship recipient has been outed as white
A key figure in the Black Lives Matter movement who claimed he was the victim of a horrific hate crime in his youth as a result his race has been outed as white.
Shaun King, an author and writer who is one of the leading voices speaking out against police brutality on social media, has claimed he is biracial in numerous interviews.
King has said that his father is black and his mother is white and of Irish descent – but his birth certificate lists his parents as both white.
In addition, King’s race is listed as white in the police report of the aforementioned attack that occurred while he was in high school.
King also applied for and then accepted an Oprah scholarship to Morehouse College – which are only given to black men – but claims he never lied to receive that scholarship.
The 35-year-old responded to the controversy on Twitter Wednesday by saying; ‘Out of LOVE for my family, I’ve never gone public with my racial story because it’s hurtful, scandalous, and it’s MY STORY.’
These claims were first uncovered by the site ReNews-It, and then Breitbart, and King compared their attack to President Obama being asked to show his birth certificate to prove he was born in America.
‘In essence, what is happening to me now, is like conservatives demanding Obama’s long form birth certificate. It’s all BULLSH*T,’ he said.
King also wrote on Twitter of his family; ‘The key facts about my biological relatives are all wrong. They tried, but my family, like many of yours, is one big mess.
‘Like many of you, I have siblings I don’t know, siblings I’m estranged from, and a family full of secrets, divorce, affairs, etc.
‘No 2 siblings in my family have the same set of parents. We’re all over the place. Some of us are not even blood relatives.’
He ended by writing; ‘Trying hard not to slip into a deep funk over all of this garbage, but my life, my past, my pain, my family, ARE VERY REAL TO ME.’
He also posted a Facebook message that again evaded the race question, but had a testimonial from a former college classmate and friend praising his actions over the years.
‘Some people think I showed up last year after Mike Brown was killed and faked my way into the conversation. Thankful for folk who’ve known me for 20 years,’ wrote King.
His friend meanwhile wrote; ‘Shaun got called “Ni***r” just as much, if not more, than myself or any of my black friends and family while growing up in Versailles.
‘Do you think an 8 year old would volunteer for that type of treatment? A funny colored, wavy haired child just trying to navigate life? To have anything from racial slurs to cups full of dip-spit (chewing tobacco) hurled at you from confederate flag covered pick-up trucks?
‘And then 20 years later have some right wing assholes question whether it ever happened and go as far as to call you a fraud and try to de-bunk years of social justice work that you’ve put under your belt?
‘We grew up in a town where white mothers were constantly dis-owned by their families for having relationships and making children with black fathers. Where even into the 2000’s, the racial identities of mix-raced children were a taboo topic.
‘Shaun was a direct victim of that. 20 years later, much progress has been made in my town of Versailles, but we are proving we have much further to go if people from my home town don’t speak the fu*k up.’
Montel Williams wrote on Twitter after seeing this; ‘Shaun King cut out the damn drama and answer the damn question – good lord you are a drama queen. It’s yes or no!’
This comes after King attacked Williams for saying activist DeRay McKesson ‘is no MLK.’
King responded to this by criticizing Williams for his family life, posting an unflattering article about his relationship with his children and writing; ‘Really Montel? Take care of your house bruh and keep a good man’s name out ya mouth.’
King also commented on the claim on the police report that he only suffered minor injuries during the attack that took place in high school.
‘Over 20 years ago, when I was 15 years old, I was beaten so badly I missed the next 20 months of school recovering from fractures to my face and ribs, and severe injuries to my spine,’ he wrote on Facebook.
‘I had three brutal spinal surgeries during that time and it changed the entire course of my life. I received counseling for PTSD and have had multiple spinal surgeries and years of physical therapy since.’
He also had a fellow student write a detailed account of what happened, and multiple people that attended Morehouse with him commented that he suffered from back problems even then.
King also wrote about that fight on his Daily Kos profile, saying it was a hate crime.
‘High school was a rude awakening for me. I quickly found myself in the middle of decades old racial tensions and became the focus of constant abuse of the resident rednecks of my school.
‘I had half a dozen fights my freshman year, had a jar of tobacco spit thrown on me in the middle of the school day, and came a few feet away from being run over by a pickup truck full of guys who chased me down and nearly mauled me as I walked home from a school dance.
‘I reported it to the school, having saw each guy in the car, but they did nothing about it.
‘A few months later, a group of guys in the school beat me within a few inches of my life. I missed the next 18 months of school recovering from three spinal surgeries and fractures to my face and ribs. I won’t even try here to explain the depths and extent of my physical and emotional pain, but it was brutal.
‘I got some counseling for PTSD, learned the hard way that spinal surgeries leave a lasting impact, and finally found myself back on my feet.’
If true, the story would have remarkable similarities to that of Rachel Dolezal, the civil rights activist and NAACP head from Spokane, Washington who purposely mislead people about her racial background.
