Rachel Dolezal 2.0, #BlackLivesMatter Activist Shaun King is White

[YankeeFan]

Oh my gosh, this is too forking funny:

He's either the male version of Rachel Dolezal, or the victim of a conservative conspiracy.

Those are the two views the world has of Shaun King, a leading voice in the Black Lives Matter movement, who has been accused of misrepresenting his race and passing for black when he's actually white.

Black Lives Matter -- the nationwide rallying cry of activists protesting the killing of unarmed black men by police -- is growing in the limelight and King has been at the center of it, appearing often on television talk shows and at protest sites.

King has said in interviews that he's biracial, with a white mother and a black father. But this week websites, including Breibart.com and the Daily Beast, alleged that King's father is white.

Breibart published what it says is King's Kentucky birth certificate, listing Jeffery Wayne King as the father, but the document doesn't list his race. The Daily Beast said public records it reviewed show that King's father is Caucasian.

In addition, CNN's Don Lemon said a "family member" told CNN both of King's parents are white.

In one of a series of tweets Wednesday, King said, "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."

Is Black Lives Matter's Shaun King lying about his race? - CNN.com

 

[YankeeFan]

And, like someone else, one of the key events in his racial/political awakening appears to be fiction (though the narrative was accepted at face value by the media):

The suggestion by a prominent Black Lives Matter activist that he was the victim of a racially charged mob beating is not supported by witness statements, a police report or details provided to TheBlaze by the detective who was assigned to the case.

Well-known Ferguson activist Shaun King has on multiple occasions recounted the story of a brutal 1995 assault he says took place during his sophomore year at Woodford County High School in Versailles, Kentucky.

Writing in his self-help book "The Power of 100!," King implied he was the victim of a racially motivated attack by a gang of more than two dozen students who relentlessly beat him until he was a "bloody mess on the floor" and "physically ruined."

King wrote that he had been "harassed almost daily by a growing group of self-proclaimed rednecks" before a mob one day swarmed around him and "started punching him from every angle," stomping on his "broken body" with "steel-toed boots."

In at least two media profiles, the incident is described as a hate crime.

Rebel magazine wrote that King was "savagely beaten by a dozen self-described 'rednecks' in one of Kentucky's first registered hate crimes." Forbes magazine's profile said that "as a fifteen-year-old he was beaten so badly in what was one of the first registered hate crimes in the state."

King wrote that his injuries forced him to miss more than a year of school and required several surgeries. "Needless to say, my body never fully mended," he added.

But claims of King being the victim of a brutal racially charged mob beating are heavily disputed by documents reviewed by TheBlaze, as well as by details provided by the detective who worked the case. Some of these details were also reported in a July story published in the conservative Daily Caller, but TheBlaze has gathered additional information that further disputes King's claims.

The police report and witness statements from the incident characterize King's injuries as only "minor" and make no mention of a gang assault, but suggest it was rather a one-on-one fight over a girl.

We Examined Black Lives Matter Activist's Claim He Was Victim of Mob Assault — Here's What We Found

 

[Mr. Sunshine]

Been all downhill for King since the pass to Emmanuel was ruled incomplete.

 

[YankeeFan]

The Times is on it as well. This is going to be fun, as this guy has a much larger platform and profile than Dolezal:

A racial justice activist with a wide following on Twitter denied conservative bloggers' claims on Wednesday that he had lied about his race and about being the victim of a racially motivated attack.

The activist, Shaun King, 35, rose to prominence in the Black Lives Matter movement after the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager, in Ferguson, Mo., in August 2014. He has said that his mother is white and his father is black and that the assault fueled his passion for helping people.

But conservative bloggers accused him of lying about both, pointing to a police report from an incident that Mr. King describes as his brutal beating by a white mob. In the report, dated March 1, 1995, Mr. King's race is marked as white, his injuries are described as minor, and only one other student is identified as being involved.

Keith Broughton, the investigating detective, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday that he had not asked Mr. King about his race but filled out the form based on the observation of the student's light skin and white mother. He said he interviewed six witnesses put forth by the school's principal, including a teacher who broke up the fight. They all described it as a one-on-one altercation, he said.

The report was picked up from a conservative blogger and published Wednesday on the conservative media site Breitbart, and the reaction was swift. Mr. King became the top trending topic on Twitter, where he responded to the accusations in a series of messages to his 170,000 followers.

"Every single person who knows me BEYOND Twitter, beyond trending topics and HIT PIECES, knows I have never lied about my race," Mr. King wrote in response on Twitter. In a second message, he added, "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."

Reached by email on Wednesday, Mr. King declined to comment on the accusations and referred a reporter to his responses on social media.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/20/u...es-claims-he-lied-about-race-and-assault.html

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

TLC's new reality show "It's Tough Being Black When You're Not Black" should be a hoot.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

I believe he believes he's black.

 

[YankeeFan]

This is going to be funny.

Rachel Dolezal was the head of a small NAACP chapter, but she wasn't any kind of national leader, so it was easy to mock her, and dismiss her.

Shaun King is a leader in the movement. People are invested in him. If he's discredited, it will hurt the movement.

So, people are already defending him, without addressing the question at hand:




The simple fact that it's "conservative media outlets" that are questioning his backstory means his story is "fluid" no matter the facta:

Over the past several weeks, conservative media outlets have published multiple pieces disputing different claims King has made about his life over the years. And the latest accusations — which caused the story to trend on Twitter — have called into question whether King is biracial, as he claims.

There's a bit of history to this conflict. But the fact that a self-identified biracial man is being chastised by conservative media outlets as part of an attempt to discredit him shows just how fluid the entire concept of race can be, and that makes it difficult to know who's right and wrong when questions about race come up.

Why Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King is under attack on Twitter

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

There should be a League of Unextroardinary Gentlemen-type reality TV show.

Line up all the hypocrites and liars and put them in a house together.

Josh Duggar, Shaun King, the Teabaggers in Lansing, Mark Sanford, Rachel Dolezal.

Show could go on forever.

 

[Mr. Sunshine]

Better to be defiant than admit you fell for a fraud.

 

[MisterCreosote]

The simple fact that it's "conservative media outlets" that are questioning his backstory means his story is "fluid" no matter the facta:

Except it's not just conservative media outlets.

Is there something fishy about Shaun King?

 

[Neutral Corner]

"Is there anything to all this, or is it some kind of organized smear campaign? And, if it is a smear campaign, how does it involve so many different sites, publications and individuals?" ~ Daily Kos

 

[YankeeFan]

"Is there anything to all this, or is it some kind of organized smear campaign? And, if it is a smear campaign, how does it involve so many different sites, publications and individuals?" ~ Daily Kos

It's not a tough question. Are both of his parents white?