I'm so appalled.
Over the past few days, conservative, right-wing people and sites like Glen Bleck, Breitbart, and The Blaze (amongst others) have accused Shaun King, an activist who gained significant attention after his in-depth analyses and social media campaign in the wake of the killing of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson in August of 2014, of two things: 1) lying about being severely beaten by a white mob of students in high school in Versailles, KY; and even more WTF 2) of not actually being Black.
Lawdjeefus.
I can't proclaim to know Shaun King very well. He is my Morehouse brother, and we attended Morehouse College at the same time. We came in together and (I believe) graduated together. We had some classes together. We talked on occasion as any folks shooting the shit about music and where we're from would do. But I didn't know him well. However, if you were at Morehouse from 1997-2001 (and arguably well after), you KNEW Shaun King. I still remember the first time I heard his dynamic and booming voice at our weekly Crown Forum when he was voted SGA President. He opened up Crown Forum with the most memorable "HOOOOOOOOOOTEP" that I'd ever heard in my life. And I ain't no hotep nigga, but that day, I was almost on board. To know Shaun King was to know his story as well. I knew what happened to him in high school at the hands of the angry racist, redneck mob (totally believable by the way having gone to high school where I did in Alabama). It wasn't a story he shied away from but one he shared as a story of perseverance in the eyes of struggle. Even back then, you knew Shaun King was going to do…something. He'd be a somebody. Hell, he was a somebody already, but he was going to be one of those folks that everybody had the opportunity to know. From afar, I knew he was the kind of person you would be proud of, and as his Morehouse brother, I knew he'd make the college proud someday. I remember when I met his girlfriend at the time - now, wife - and how excited she was to speak of her boyfriend and not only his accomplishments but what he would do.
He's the kind of guy you believe in. Mind you, these are all things I gleaned from afar. I can't imagine what I'd think of him if I was a close friend of his.
So I'm glad that folks are coming forward in his defense in regards to what happened to him in high school. Because of a police report that alleges that the fight was a one-on-one fight where Shaun was left with only minor bruises, the sites are going ham and claiming he fabricated the story. There ain't shit on a police report you can show me that is going to make me take it at face value; too many inaccuracies and lies have been uncovered to trust shit coming out of a police report, especially in a time when the police WEREN'T under a microscope. Further, in a small town where an angry mob of white folks damn near killed a Black kid, you better believe EVERYBODY is going to find a way to make it go away. I ABSOLUTELY believe that the school's administration and the police made light of it in order to make it seem like nothing more than a schoolyard fight. You don't speak with the sincerity and earnestness that he does about this tragic incident that could have very well ended his life unless it really happened. Well, unless you're a psychopath, and I'm fairly certain that's not a word that he's ever been associated with.
But the most nefarious claim is that he's not even Black. Which means he is Rachel Dolezal Redux. And that he accepted a scholarship to attend Morehouse College from Oprah Winfrey - a scholarship for Black men - under false pretense.
Look, when the Rachel Dolezal story dropped, nearly every Black person who looked at her knew that was a white woman, or at least wasn't a Black woman. Even the folks in the NAACP chapter she led acknowledged that there were questions about her background.
Shaun King ain't one of those people. He, like myself, and many others comes from one of those real American blended families. My father is Black and my mother is white, so I have white cousins and Black cousins, and it all blends perfectly, let the liquor tell it. I don't have any blood siblings that aren't mixed, but who even cares. If Shaun is white, then hell, so am I. He addressed this non-sense via his Twitter page in a numbered list and I'm glad he did. The attempts to undermine the significant work he's done towards addressing police brutality and upliftment in the Black community is ri-damn-diculous.
Now his family members are coming out saying that he is, in fact, white.
Oh for fuck's sake.
Meanwhile, this picture exists.
@ShaunKing via Instagram
He looks just like my nephew in this picture. My nephew? Black. I ain't saying that picture clears it all up, but if you're Black, you probably looked at that picture like, "yeah, he's official. He's at least mixed."
Part of the issue comes from the police report that downplays the significance of what happened to him. In this report, his race is indicated as white. The officer who filed the report acknowledged he did so because of Shaun's light skin - the brotha is definitely light as hell - and because his mother is white. There's no malice there and dare I call it an honest, but ignorant mistake. But still, THIS is a large part of the claim against him being Black.
The other part is this: Shaun, in his Twitter spiel lets everybody know that if you've known him, even since he was a little kid, that he's always identified as bi-racial or Black. Yes his mother is white. But Shaun is a Black (or bi-racial for all of you sticklers who don't like it when us mixed folks call ourselves Black) dude if I've ever seen one. There are pictures and birth certificates, et al. circulating about who his father is and the birth certificate listing this white man as his father. If that's his father, cool. But his father needs to get on that Ancestry.com wave and find out what part of Africa his folks came from because he done made him a Black boy. Either that or some of that painful, scandalous story he has is part of the reason for some radio silence on it all. I mean, let's be real, "mama's baby, daddy's maybe" is a thing for a reason. Hell, there are tons of news stories and Maury Povich made a living off of that fact. Who is father is listed as and who his father actually is can easily be two entirely different people. But that's his story and his family's story and its his right to leave it be. Based on recent history, "official documents" have never looked more suspect, anyway.
29. 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.
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) August 19, 2015
I recommend you actually go back and read his Twitter feed addressing the entire situation, something I feel like he, unfortunately, had to do because the stories have become so big and frequent. He was the number one trending topic on Twitter yesterday. Sit back and think about that shit for a minute.
I can't imagine what kind of personal stress this has brought to him and his family. Shaun's been through a lot. But it's a whole different ball game when the world is calling you a liar and claiming your life is one big fabrication. To do what he does, his story and race are irrelevant. But they're his and they are who he is. They are a part of what makes him tick and drives his passion for the Black community and upliftment.
He ain't no Rachel Dolezal. She was a woman who was outed and her entire story crumbled. That isn't happening in this case. But unfortunately all people need is some hint of doubt in order to kill credibility, especially when they already don't like you for speaking truths they're uncomfortable with. Lies travel around the world twice before the truth wakes up in the morning. That's one of those sayings that I heard growing up. The amount of stories questioning his story and race are dumbfounding, meanwhile I doubt most of them give a shit about what he cleared up via social media.
It's an odd world we live in when you have to VERIFY your Blackness to white people, ain't it? There was a time when folks threw that at you to reduce your status and standing. Now you have to defend your ability to be a minority? I can't even imagine what's going to happen when I get famous enough to get questions about why this half-Black, half-white guy runs a site called Very Smart Brothas. I hope Damon's ready. For eons, being half-white only made you Black. Now, being half-white is what you get called as a way of diluting your ability to give a shit about being Black. It's amazing really.
People who want no parts of Blackness are trying to stop others ability to identify with the skin they live in. Odd times indeed.
I care about this story because I know Shaun, even if it not very well. But also because from what I've seen, he's been consistent with who he is and his messaging since our days as students at Morehouse. He's my Morehouse brother. But he's also a Black man under attack who has to fight…to be Black.
How real is this?