Are they Black? Are they Hispanic? Could they be Asian? Or maybe they are mixed. Then again, they could be White and pretending to be another race to gain attention. Black people get the most attention, for good and bad reason.
Shaun King, the founder of Life Goals University (not to be confused with the singer Sean Kingston), is currently in the media because some people don't believe he is really biracial. This all stems from Rachel Dolezal, who was outed as a White woman pretending to be Black earlier this year. While Rachel wasn't really known outside of the state of Washington, she held a leadership role with the NAACP. To make herself seem more legit for the job, she told everyone she was Black. For a while her colleagues either believed her or didn't care, but this year a family member decided to reveal her lie to the media. The lie made her famous around America and made her lose her job. While Rachel and Shaun are two different people, Shaun is sticking to his story that he has a White mom and a Black dad that he never met.
Many people first heard of Shaun when he came out with the popular online event called Life Goals University. It was a motivation website that was supposed to be the start of him mentoring as many people as he could reach online to follow their goals. After getting the website up and running, having tons of motivational videos from people, and starting a blog, he stopped. He had other obligations to tend to. However, it was the beginning of really being noticed by strangers worldwide.
According to his resume, he has been fighting for the rights of Black people for as long as he can remember. However, many of us just found out who he is within the last few years. Even more, we have been exposed to both the good news surrounding him and the crazy rumors. One such rumor has been about him asking for money for to donate to Black areas, such as Ferguson, and then stealing the money. When rumors hit, he continually said he never asked for money from anyone. Maybe he didn't ask for any money and the rumors always died down, but it seems like there is one rumor he is having trouble defending. That is the rumor that his skin tone may be so light because he doesn't really have a Black father.
Does it matter if Shaun's father is Black or White? To some it does and to them his movement means nothing if he has been lying about his race this whole time. For the people who decided to come forward and make his skin tone a huge topic, it's helping discredit him.
There is another way to discredit people. That way is to question their sexuality. Whether people are straight, Gay, confused, or transgendered will forever be a popular controversial topic.
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