Black Lives Matter vocal activist Shaun King has been “accused of being white.” King garnered national attention after claiming he had been the victim of a shocking hate crime as a teen. An investigative blogger, who happens to be white, levied the race accusation at his fellow author and “police brutality” activist.
Shaun King’s birth certificate was reportedly garnered and published on Re-NewsIt . The official birth record states that both of the Black Lives Matter activist’s parents are white. King has reportedly maintained that his father was black. A police report stemming from the physical attack King reported while in high school also reportedly lists his race as white.
King, 35, was given an Oprah Winfrey scholarship to Morehouse College — such funding is reportedly only given to black men. The Black Lives Matter activist has not yet officially responded to the “being white” accusations, but did appear to address the matter with one of his social media followers.
“Police reports are like gold to [the media] man. Now they are basically claiming I lied about every aspect of my life for the past 20 years,” Shaun King posted.
Responding to questions about the police report from the alleged hate crime stating he only sustained minor injuries, the activist added, “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,” the Facebook posting said. “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 white happened, and multiple people that attended Moorehouse with him commented that he suffered from back problems even then.
In his profile on the Daily Kos website, King detailed what he said occurred during the alleged 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.”
Shaun King is reportedly married to his high school sweetheart, Rai. The couple has four homeschooled children.
During a 2014 interview with Liberal America , the Black Lives Matter activists shared his thoughts on the alleged white privilege problem in America.
“Some of how we get all people to understand privilege is simply to tell our story – one story at a time. I try to do that on Twitter and share stories of others I know,” King said.
[Image via: A Katz / Shutterstock, Instagram, Kentucky State Police, and Facebook]