Another "Black Activist" Outed As White

WildCat said:
Can you cite the part of the story where that claim is made?
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It is a little strange. The story says his wife "addressed" these claims, does not quote or summarize what she said. It's like the story was written to make the reader imagine a refutation was made.

I'm not seeing anything there that contradicts the original story.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
You'd think after Breitbart's history of deceitful reporting, I'm surprised people in this forum don't think to check out stories on that website before biting into them hook, line, and sinker. Given Breitbart's history, I'm siding with the activist here unless valid evidence emerges.
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I could say the exact same thing about numerous mainstream news media outlets such as NBC, New York Times, etc., when it comes to covering a certain other issue (an issue which it has been consistently misrepresenting, if not outright lying about, for a year now).

The bottom line is this: is the story—regardless of its source—factually accurate? Can its claims be supported, yes or no?
 
Porpoise of Life said:
I agree that it's weird. On the one hand the 'one drop' rule still seems to be in effect, and on the other hand society is coming to the conclusion that our attitudes toward race are mostly/wholly cultural.
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The issue here is certainly not that one drop of "black" blood makes one black.

It is that, if there is no one recognizable as a black person in your (recent?) ancestry, it is misleading to call yourself black. More of a no-drop rule.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
So, on MSNBC right now they are reporting this is a right wing blogger lie and the man never claimed to be black. He's a blacklivesmatter activist married to a black woman but who never once told anyone he was black.
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Ah, I see. He never told anyone he was black, just that he had a black father and was mixed race. What a weasel, with spin like that, he should be a politician.


Typical Breitbart BS.
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The first link I provided was from "The Daily Beast" and that was done intentionally because this is the reaction I expected from the naysayers.


From your quoted link, Mr. King says this:
“Every single person who knows me BEYOND Twitter, beyond trending topics and HIT PIECES, knows I have never lied about my race,”
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Then several tweets later, while doing his twitter denial/nondenial tap dance, he says this:
I did concoct a lie to get a scholarship @Morehouse.
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Too many lies to keep track of, I guess. Or maybe he told them he was Latino!

Non-Breitbart link.
 
Giordano said:
I have no knowledge of the facts in this case, but I will remind people that if this story is only based on who is listed as "father" on a birth certificate, it should be realized that the legal father is not necessarily the biological one. One way this can happen is that the legal father did not realize at the time that he was not the biological father. Further, I believe that in at least some locations in the USA a person can successfully be listed on the certificate as the legal father even if they and the mom know that someone else is the biological father. A minimal example: I believe that children resulting from an anonymous sperm donation typically have the mom's spouse listed as "father" and that this can happen even in SSM with two females.

One legal aspect: most law courts accept that being listed as "father" on the birth certificate creates full paternal responsibilities, including child support in the event of a divorce, even if the listed father turns out not to be the biological father.
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In some states, if the mother is married, her husband is considered the father, regardless of the biological reality.
 
Doghouse Reilly said:
Hold on here, I don't think it's accurate to say that being "black" in America is just something you are because you "identity" with it or experience it socially. The purpose of black scholarships and so forth is to provide aid to those who LITERALLY descended from people who were slaves. Whether or not race is a social construct, the reality is that this guy does not descend from people who were slaves, and he does not descend from people with recent African genetic ancestry.

I don't quite see how race is entirely a social construct when looking at someone's physical appearance can literally provide information about the specific areas of the globe their ancestors spent long periods of time. Blackness in America implies that one has ancestors who spent periods of time in Africa that other people spent somewhere else. How in the world can "being black" possibly just be a matter of identification with a community, in that context? As much as people on this board may wish that's all it were, that is not the way most black people view the situation. To them, having actual genetic descent from black African people is important in being considered black.

Whether or not this means African people are different from other people in any relevant or significant way or whether "we're all the same" (whatever that means) is really beside the point.
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Exactly.

Being black is not a social construct, people are treated negatively because they look black, not because they identify as being black.

Put it this way - when this King guy walks down the street, do people cross to the other side of the street as he approaches because they think he's black? Is he an automatic suspected shoplifter when he walks into a store? Do people call him the N word? Has he ever been treated wrong or different than others because he looks like a black man?

These are all things that black people describe as happening in their day to day lives, and these are the reasons affirmative action exists. Nobody knows your ancestry when they judge you, if you look black you get treated that way. Does a person who looks like he does suffer oppression because they're black? If no, why give him special consideration or a scholarship from Oprah?

Just because someone has African blood in them does not mean they will be treated this way. It's your appearance that dictates this because people are superficial. He looks white - he probably has little to no idea what it is to be black.

Okay, here it is, and I'd like to know what black people think - if someone looks white but has African ancestry, should they receive any special consideration, like affirmative action or scholarships from Oprah? Sorry, I'm having trouble phrasing that any better than this.
 
Doghouse Reilly said:
The purpose of black scholarships and so forth is to provide aid to those who LITERALLY descended from people who were slaves.
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Wait so, if you're a black american kid and your mom and dad emigrated from Uganda in the '90s that means you're out of the running for black scholarships and so forth?

ETA: I was under the impression that black scholarships etc were not a form of reparations for slavery but rather an attempt to mitigate the negative effects of currently-existing racial bias. Which, judging by the photos I've seen of this guy he's plenty black enough to have experienced. I can't guess if he has or not, what I mean is that I wouldn't rule it out.

ETA: CNN says Morehouse said on Twitter that it doesn't select scholarships or admissions based on race.
 
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Has Morehouse College confirmed that the scholarship King received was actually intended solely for black recipients?
 
Corsair 115 said:
I could say the exact same thing about numerous mainstream news media outlets such as NBC, New York Times, etc., when it comes to covering a certain other issue (an issue which it has been consistently misrepresenting, if not outright lying about, for a year now).
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First off, all news outlets should be taken with a grain of salt. But claiming the credibility of Fox News or Breitbart match that of the main stream news is crap.

Corsair 115 said:
The bottom line is this: is the story—regardless of its source—factually accurate? Can its claims be supported, yes or no?
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I'm going to tentatively say, it appears the answer is, no. It's likely the story is a dubious right wing started rumor against a blacklivesmatter activist. Or, at a minimum, it is a gross distortion of the facts.


Bogative, did you read the link? A police officer taking the report on the assault said he mistakenly assumed King had a black father and King was not the source of that error. And regardless of the link you cited, the claim originated on Breitbart. And according to King on Twitter (via Snopes):
10. But, having no journalistic standards at all, Breitbart decided to use a known white supremacist as their main source of info on ME....
15. First, Breitbart has 3 main sources. Vicki Pate (a known white supremacist) and @TheBlaze & @TheDailyCaller (who we already refuted).
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From looking at his school pic, and from his claim he never said he had a black father and from this tweet:
'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,' King said in defense of these claims
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A possible conclusion is he does indeed have a black father but has never publicly stated that. Could be his mom had a lover.
Shaun King’s Birth Certificate Does Not List His Biological Father: Report

This is what was reported on MSNBC today, from the Gawker link:
But now MSNBC correspondent Joy Reid is reporting what seems to be a crucial bit of context: The father listed on the certificate, Jeffery Wayne King, is not the activist’s biological father. Today Reid told anchor Richard Lui:

"I did talk to Shaun. I can tell you that Shaun King is biracial. There is no reason to doubt that he is biracial. The stories about what he said regarding getting his scholarship, etc, I think you have to consider the source. I don’t think they’re credible absent any actual reporting.

The story essentially is that the two people who are listed on Shaun King’s birth certificate, his mom and his dad, his mother is his biological mother, the man listed on his birth certificate is not his biological father.

I think getting into further details about who his biological father is, unfairly drags his mother into a story—and she is not a public figure. This is a very private story between his mom, dad, and the person who is his biological father. But Shaun King, since he was about 8 or 9 years old, has known that his dad is not his biological father."
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I'm going to go with, he never said he had a black father, but he does have a black father, and part of the lie is identifying his mother's husband (if that is/was her husband) as King's father.

Now why Gawker says no father listed while other sources say the wrong man is listed, I don't know. But here's more from Joy Reid:
Reid revealed that the man listed on King’s birth certificate is not his biological father, and Shaun had learned of that fact when he was around nine or ten. “I think getting into further details about who his father is unfairly drags his mother into a story in which she is not a public figure. This is a private story between his mom, dad, and the person who is his biological father.”
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Seems more credible to me than anything else I've read on this.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
First off, all news outlets should be taken with a grain of salt. But claiming the credibility of Fox News or Breitbart match that of the main stream news is crap.
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Okay. But then you do this (emphasis added):

Skeptic Ginger said:
This is what was reported on MSNBC today, from the Gawker link ...
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Skeptic Ginger said:
Now why Gawker says no father listed while other sources say the wrong man is listed, I don't know.
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You're going to dismiss Breitbart as unreliable but then list Gawker as a citation? You see no irony in that?
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
First off, all news outlets should be taken with a grain of salt. But claiming the credibility of Fox News or Breitbart match that of the main stream news is crap.

I'm going to tentatively say, it appears the answer is, no. It's likely the story is a dubious right wing started rumor against a blacklivesmatter activist. Or, at a minimum, it is a gross distortion of the facts.


Bogative, did you read the link? A police officer taking the report on the assault said he mistakenly assumed King had a black father and King was not the source of that error. And regardless of the link you cited, the claim originated on Breitbart. And according to King on Twitter (via Snopes):



From looking at his school pic, and from his claim he never said he had a black father and from this tweet:

A possible conclusion is he does indeed have a black father but has never publicly stated that. Could be his mom had a lover.
Shaun King’s Birth Certificate Does Not List His Biological Father: Report

This is what was reported on MSNBC today, from the Gawker link:


I'm going to go with, he never said he had a black father, but he does have a black father, and part of the lie is identifying his mother's husband (if that is/was her husband) as King's father.

Now why Gawker says no father listed while other sources say the wrong man is listed, I don't know. But here's more from Joy Reid:


Seems more credible to me than anything else I've read on this.
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MSNBC? Gawker? Seriously? No better than Breitbart. :rolleyes:
 
Corsair 115 said:
Okay. But then you do this (emphasis added):

You're going to dismiss Breitbart as unreliable but then list Gawker as a citation? You see no irony in that?
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No, I'm listening Joy Reid from MSNBC as more credible than Breitbart. I heard her initially today and those links just have the written version. In addition, there are the tweets by King and it all adds up to my conclusion until other evidence surfaces.


But if you intend to argue that Breitbart isn't a pack of liars, I'll just agree right now to disagree with you. They have no credibility in my book after the Planned Parenthood propaganda videos.
 
mgidm86 said:
Okay, here it is, and I'd like to know what black people think - if someone looks white but has African ancestry, should they receive any special consideration, like affirmative action or scholarships from Oprah? Sorry, I'm having trouble phrasing that any better than this.
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There are plenty of people who identify as "black" who could "pass" as white. There have also been "black" people in history who did "pass" for white, to the point of abandoning their "black" families for fear that their "white" colleagues would reject, and quite possibly kill, them if discovered. And like many conventions and stereotypes, these both have long histories in the US. So this isn't at all new.
 
Corsair 115 said:
The recent SPJ Airplay event wouldn't agree, it seems. The real journalists there all laughed at the mention of Gawker and "journalism" in the same sentence.
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Given how bad Breitbart is, you haven't refuted her.
 
Anyone refute this quote attributed to him yet?

Quote:
I did concoct a lie to get a scholarship @Morehouse.
 
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