Black Lives Matter Organizer Shaun King Disputes He is a White Man, Lying About His Race
Prominent Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King has been accused of lying about his race and pretending to be black in order to win a scholarship designated for African American students.
The 35-year-old civil rights activist claims to be the biracial son of a Caucasian mother and an African-American father. However, conservative blogger Vicki Plate published an article, that has been echoed by Breitbart, alleging that King is fully white. In the article, Plate argues that a 1995 police document identifies King's ethnicity as white.
Plate also published what she believes to be a mugshot a white-looking man that is King's father. However, it was later stated that the mug shot is not actually King's father.
King has also been accused of lying about his race in order to receive a leadership scholarship sponsored by Oprah Winfrey to attend the historically black Morehouse College.
The article goes on to state that King has written extensively about being terrorized by "decades old racial tensions" as a child and "the focus of constant abuse of the resident rednecks of my school."
In response, King blasted the article, claiming to have never lied about his race, publicly or privately. He also wrote that he did not make any false claims to be accepted into Morehouse or to win an academic scholarship.
On Twitter, he stated that his family is mixed to the point that "no two siblings in my family have the same set of parents," on Twitter. He also tweeted, "If you have known me from when I was in elementary school at Huntertown Elementary until now, you've known me as black or bi-racial."
"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," he tweeted, adding that right-wing bloggers just "want me to shut up."
On Facebook, he disputed the claim that he falsified details of an alleged racially-motivated attack King suffered at a young age.
"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," King wrote in a Facebook post. "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."
"Every mentor and coach and advisor I have, without fail, has told me NOT to respond to any of this. For weeks I've ignored it all," he wrote on Twitter.
"First off, the key facts about my biological relatives are all wrong. They tried, but my family, like many of yours, is one big mess," he posted. "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."
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