After 'horrifying' personal attacks, Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King reaffirms he is biracial

Shaun King.
(Image credit: Twitter.com/TheRoot)

A prominent Black Lives Matter activist is speaking out about his racial identity after several conservative websites posted articles alleging he is lying about being biracial.

King, 35, said he is "not ashamed of it, or who I am," and said that about 20 years ago, his pastor told him "this was not a mess or my doing and it was not my responsibility to fix." King, who writes about police brutality and racism for the liberal website Daily Kos, said he finds it "horrifying" that his "most personal information, for the most nefarious reasons, has been forced out into the open, and that my private past and pain have been used as jokes and fodder to discredit me and the greater movement for justice in America." King told the Post he spoke with his mother on Wednesday for the first time at length about his father's identity, and believes the attacks are a coordinated attempt to tarnish his new anti-police brutality organization, Justice Together, which will launch August 28.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.