Black Lives Matter's Shaun King, a high-profile activist campaigning against police brutality and a justice correspondent for the Daily Kos, is being accused of misrepresentation of his race. He has reported himself to be "biracial," but according to evidence, he's actually white.
According to CNN, he didn't mince words when the allegations were raised against him. "The reports about my race, about my past, and about the pain I've endured are all lies," wrote King.
According to Breitbart, though the public has praised King for his efforts regarding social rights and civil activism, rumors have been circulating regarding his ethnicity. A 1995 report from the website said that he is actually white.
However, King denies such claims. He has described himself as having been "mixed with a black family," per a Twitter archive.
A certain Vicky Pate, blogger at Re-NewsIt!, exerted efforts to find documents tracing the activist's race.
in a report from Re-NewsIt!, Pate reveals that she has found documents to support claims that King's father is white.
"I received proof a few days ago that Shaun King's father is exactly who we said he was in an earlier post. We now have a certified copy of King's birth certificate," Pate said. "His father's name is Jeffery Wayne King. he was 23 in 1979, the year Shaun was born."
So what will happen if King is not black or biracial as he claims to be but is actually white?
Breitbart reports that if the findings do prove King to be white, it would mean that he has misled the African-American hero, Oprah Winfrey. King has availed of the Oprah Scholarship and has gone to the historically black Morehouse College.
CNN adds that the Black Lives Matter movement will be greatly affected.
Mel Robbins, an Attorney and legal commentator, said that it will become a distraction to Black Lives Matter.
"It matters because (there are conservatives) that would like to discredit the Black Lives Matter movement at all costs," she said. "Every time somebody does this and they're not punished for it, it actually has a negative impact on the bigger movement."
CNN legal commentator, Areva Martin, agreed with Robbins, saying that this race issue takes the movement's focus off it's priorities such as police brutality.
Martin adds that King's deceit will be extremely harmful to Black Lives Matter.
"This movement cannot be sustained if you have leaders who are not credible," she said. "The public is not tolerant of people who misrepresent themselves. You have to be who you say you are."
