Shaun King has just recently posted a long rant about his favor subject on Facebook, in which he plainly states a rather revealing statement...
"I am 3/4ths white." (Link)
This is directly at odds with his previous statement that his mother had an affair with a "light-skinned black man". A simple google search of that phrase paired with Shaun King brings up numerous references. Here is Shaun King in his own words:
While Shaun doesn't provide details, one can assume that Shaun is up to 50% black, assuming that his "real" father was a 100% black man, albeit light-skinned.
That begs the question, how does Shaun now know that his "real" father is exactly 50% black? For someone consumed by issues of race, it seems like an unlikely mistake. I mean... if the guy's identity is unknown, why not just stick with "light-skinned black man"? Why did Shaun change his story, downgrading his blackness from 50% to 25%?
Please share and comment below.
For when Shaun edits his Facebook post, here is the original.
May 2 at 7:34am ·
My BA from Morehouse College is in African American Studies. My Master's is in History - so please allow me to teach a lesson here for a few minutes. I'm going to pin this up here on my profile for a few days as well.
These are 3 Black men. Yes, Black men. Could they have passed for white? I don't think so. It would've required them to completely disown their families, their culture, their heritage, their identity, and then attempt to act like somebody they simply weren't.
People look at them and say, "Whoa. They could've passed for white." And I get that. Physically, at quick glance, they appear white, but they could've no more faked being white than I could today. Let me teach you about these great men then teach you a bit about myself.
John Hope, with the white hair, is one of my heroes and was the first Black President of Morehouse. He was also an important Black Nationalist and was very much a part of the Niagara Movement with W.E.B. DuBois. He was Howard Thurman's President and recruited Benjamin Mays to Morehouse.
Mordecai Johnson, with the glasses, is another one of my heroes. He's a Morehouse Man and was the first Black President of Howard Universityand was an essential leader there for decades during some of the best, most foundation years for Howard in the early 20th Century.
The other man is Walter White (smile Breaking Bad fans.) He was from my adopted hometown of Atlanta and was President of the NAACP for 25 years during some of the most essential years in the history of the organization.
All three of these men were brilliant. They each benefited from skin privilege and tried their best to use this for the advancement of Black folk every chance they could.
Of course, they each had a significant amount of European ancestry. That's obvious, but these men were race men, who gave the best years of their lives building institutions and movements to advance justice and equality for Black folk.
Now, what's wild about the way I look is that in my 18 years of adulthood (I'm 36 years old), white folk NEVER once claimed I was white or faking my race until I became a prominent activist against police brutality.
Now, white folk want to use random pictures from my childhood THAT I POSTED ONLINE like they've discovered some secret about me. My mother is white. I am 3/4ths white. Walter White was even whiter than I am and most of you would agree that I "look" Blacker than John Hope or Mordecai Johnson.
Were those men white? Of course not. Ultimately, you and I know that race is a social construct created to marginalize and oppress people. What's wild is that now conservatives and racists want to use my white family background, and not my Black family background, to discredit me. That's a new trick.
Of course, me and John Hope and Mordecai Johnson and Walter White are each complex racial characters, but most of us are - we just don't talk about it much.
When I say I'm Black, or when these three men (or Barack Obama or Halle Berry or Alicia Keys) say that, we all know that our truth is more nuanced than that, but we also know that this is America.
I have to get back to work, but I just wanted to share the stories of these three men and how I've always been inspired by each of them.
Racism sucks so damn much!
-Shaun
UPDATE: Hat tip to Ben Kew (@ben_kew) at Breitbart News for picking this up.
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/05/09/shaun-king-admits-he-is-75-white/
UPDATE 2: Meme formation underway.