I am a Black woman too. Do you believe me?
It is said that a lie travels halfway around the world before the truth even puts on its boots. It has become abundantly clear to me that truer words were never spoken. Over the past several years of Shaun’s activism, there have been so many lies told about him, that I’ve just come to accept it as par for the course when you do the kind of public work that he does. There are times, however, when the lies coalesce in such a way as to masquerade as the truth. It is in these moments that I feel compelled to leave the hard-earned anonymity of my private life, and speak out publicly. I want to be clear that less than I am writing to defend him, I am writing because I feel the need to defend myself. After all, any accusation that he’s stealing, is by default an accusation that I am a thief as well. As it is I -like many wives and mothers- who manages and spends the money that supports and sustains my family. And trust me, even with mine and Shaun’s five full-time jobs, we do not make so much of it that it’s piling up in our accounts unaccounted for. I see every deposit made and am painfully aware of every withdrawal. So to call him a thief is to call me one too. I want to be so unambiguously clear and state right here that there has never been and never will be, a time in which I allow my husband to steal money from anyone for any reason. Point. Blank. Period. Full effin stop.
To address it morally, there is no vacation, no new dress, no new purse, no new pair of shoes, no new weave, no new house, no new ANYTHING that is worth my soul. I believe in karma. I believe in an afterlife. I believe that what goes around comes around. I believe that what you give is what you eventually get. What you reap is what you sow. So the very idea that I would allow money that was raised and intended for anyone whose name is anything other than Shaun King, to pass through my bank accounts and be used in the care and support of my family, is so antithetical, so foreign to, so far removed from the very core of who I am and everything I believe about the world, that I am having trouble finding the words to express just how baseless and improbable such lies are. I would starve, be evicted from my home, wear rags, and live on the street before I would ever use money that was intended to help hurting people to support my own life. To sow that kind of evil into my life would never be a temptation the enemy of my soul could throw at me. I would be unmoved by it. It would simply never happen. The lie that Shaun has ever stolen money from anyone is not a creative lie. Though it is an offensive one, and disturbing to the core of my soul.
It is so disturbing, in fact, that I encouraged Shaun to seek legal action against those who are spreading the lies. Some have questioned why Shaun isn’t currently suing the White supremacists who lie on him daily. Why is he suing any Black people? First of all, many of the White accounts appear to be fake troll accounts. And legally, there wouldn’t be much of a case against them anyway, because we are struggling to determine who is even behind the accounts. Everyone expects disgruntled White people to make up stories about Shaun. So they’re mostly not believed and some of the worst lies from White people and White publications like Breitbart, we were told, are outside of the statute of limitations because they were levied several years ago. We only decided to fight these lies legally last month. Sadly, the lies about Shaun that used to almost exclusively come from White people have now been taken up and carried on by our own. Over the past few weeks we have literally seen Black folk post memes and lies about Shaun that were literally created by white supremacists. Our people are now doing their work.
Whoever started the lies that Shaun stole money from Cyntoia Brown (or anyone else) or that he plagiarizes work from Black women, or that he profits off of ads that roll during the sharing of videos of Black people being harmed, knew that it would be most effective if Black people spread them. And they were right. Shaun has had important speaking engagements canceled because of lies about his fundraising efforts. He’s had his employers question him over the validity of these lies. He even had someone turn down a job at The North Star because of these lies. Important people in our lives are saying they are getting calls wanting to know why Shaun stole money from Cyntoia Brown and other families in this movement. Those lies were intended to cause harm. And to that end, they have been successful. It doesn’t matter how many times attorneys for these families Shaun has helped issue statements saying that their clients received every penny that Shaun helped to raise for them. It does not matter how many families thank him publicly for the work he has done on their behalf. A lie travels halfway around the world before the truth even puts on its boots.
It is his legal right, and in my opinion, his obligation, to use every resource at his disposal to combat the lies and the people who tell them. These lies are causing my entire family great harm. When people say he’s stolen money from Black families or profits off of the pain of Black people, it diminishes his ability to later raise money for those very families who desperately need it. Show me one, just one Black family impacted by violence or police brutality in this country, that Shaun raised money for, that is saying Shaun kept, or ever even possessed a single penny of the money that he raised for them! They don’t exist! And daily these poor families are berated and harassed by White supremacists and Black activists alike about whether or not Shaun stole their money. And daily they keep having to push their grief to tell these people that they love Shaun and that he never touched a penny he raised for them. These families have been harassed for years and years on end about Shaun stealing money from them. It started with the family of Tamir Rice. For years people harassed Tamir’s mother over this. Her family attorney addressed this four years ago.
In December of 2015, with the help of Ron Sullivan from Harvard Law School, Shaun had an audit that me made public of every dollar he has ever raised in this movement — with quotes from each family and attorney. Read that below.
When women Shaun has never heard of can claim he plagiarized their work — with no proof that he ever had any knowledge of their work, or offer any honest comparison showing anything that even remotely resembles plagiarism, it does him tremendous harm. It is libel and it is illegal. Shaun would be fired immediately for plagiarism. Doing so even once would be a fatal career-ending decision and Shaun has never plagiarized a single word in his entire life. His supervisors at The Intercept, at the New York Daily News, and Daily Kos have all reviewed his work extensively because of these lies. Shaun has now asked our attorneys and a prestigious journalism school to intervene to rebuke these claims. They never happened. They never will.
To be clear, people are not simply being curious. They are stating lies about Shaun as if they are facts. They aren’t coming to Shaun. They aren’t going to his supervisors or editors at The Intercept comparing something Shaun wrote to something they wrote. They aren’t showing people evidence of theft or plagiarism. They’re just tweeting it and moving on.
Where’s the Facebook ad you claim Shaun’s running during videos of police brutality and making money off of? Produce it. Show it to us. If you are going to say that Shaun is doing this, produce it for the world to see. You can’t and you won’t because such a thing has never existed. And to pretend like you were just asking questions is gross and insincere. You were stating this as a fact. And it is a lie.
This man wasn’t asking a question. He made a public statement of fact. It is a lie.
Shaun has never started a fundraiser for anyone-not even his own brother. When Shaun’s dear brother, Jason, was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer this past September, our family wanted Shaun to start a fundraiser for Jason, but Shaun refused because he did not want even a hint of impropriety. When another family friend finally started one, Shaun even told them to not send him the username and password to it because he never wanted anyone to think he had anything at all to do with managing it. That’s how far Shaun goes to be a man of integrity.
When fundraisers are started they are attached to the bank accounts of whatever entity is raising the money. Since Shaun has never started any of them, and has only promoted them, it would be impossible for him to steal any money. A quick message to any of the people anyone is claiming he’s stolen money from would reveal this to be true. Only in this new age of social media can a bunch of activists and journalists whose most shared tweets are the ones full of lies they create about my husband, actually be viewed as credible without an ounce of proof! It’s not OK. Four years ago Shaun posted a detailed accounting of every single penny he had ever raised in the movement — with letters and videos from each family and attorney.
No one-regardless of their race — should be able to levy such serious allegations as theft and plagiarism against someone else so casually. If Shaun stole money from Cyntoia Brown, or anyone else, it wouldn’t just be ugly or scandalous, it would be a felony.
And anyone demanding that Shaun “prove” the allegations are false, clearly doesn’t understand the way justice works. The burden of proof lies with the accuser, not the accused. When a woman posted asking “Are folks going to hold Shaun King accountable to money he raised for Cyntoia? Or is that going to disappear as well?” — she wasn’t asking a friendly question. How can people even hold Shaun accountable for money he never “raised” for Cyntoia. What money are you saying that Shaun raised that disappeared? For who? Shaun had nothing to do with any fundraisers for Cyntoia Brown. It simply never happened. He helps to raise money and bring awareness for many causes. Hers was not one of them. She will not say he raised money for her. Her people will not say he did. What happened to her was a disgusting miscarriage of justice, and I am glad she will finally be set free. Shaun and I both fought for her to be granted clemency. I wish her well, and am sorry that her name is being used at all in any of this. She deserves better.
Over the last few days I have seen some assert that because he has exercised his right to defend himself against those who cause him harm that Shaun “hates Black women” or is “attacking Black journalists.” I saw one prominent person state that the primary reason he was willing to believe that Shaun has stolen money-without evidence to back up such claims- is because there are Black women saying so and he is choosing to “believe Black women.” And while that sounds nice, and while it is also my hope that Black women are no longer silenced and ignored when they bravely speak their truth, I would like to put forth that I am also a Black woman. Do you believe me? Or is my Blackness somehow also in question?
Just in case it is, let me be clear on just what “kind” of Black woman I am — since most of the internet does not know me. I am a Missionary Baptist raised, Sunday School attending, youth choir singing kind of Black woman. I am a big hoop wearing, new hairstyle every week having, raising my sister’s kids kind of Black woman. I am a Spelman-educated, master’s degree having, bad and boujee, code-switching, “educated but don’t try me”, pay my own bills, natural hair sporting, kinky weave wearing, Martin Luther King AND Malcom X loving, teaching in the hood, taking no shit, would never marry a man who hates me, kind of Black woman. So since we out here “believing Black women,” my question is am I Black enough for you?
I will close by saying that I write all of this only to establish a record. And so that my silence and refusal to engage in the mudslinging won’t be viewed as any sort of admission of guilt or complicity. Those who so readily believe and spread lies about Shaun do so not because they have any actual evidence against him, but because it’s what they want to believe anyway. Those people will not be swayed by anything I’ve said here. They’d rather sow mess and discord and obsess over my husband’s every move than to help real people, pass actual legislation, or catch active White Supremacists. None of these tactics are new. None of them are surprising. They existed when Jesus walked the earth, they were rampant during the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements. There will always be naysayers, critics, gossips, and backstabbers. The divide and conquer tactics are only more effective now because of how interconnected we all are. A lie travels halfway around the world before the truth even puts on its boots. Actually, because of social media, I think a lie travels all the way around the world before the truth puts on its boots.
At the end of the day, though, no matter how loud the chorus of naysayers rises, I always have the assurance of knowing that my family has nothing to hide. And nothing to hang our head about. To the contrary. I am very proud of the work Shaun does. It is so dangerous that it has come between our marriage more than once. It has put my children in harm’s way and has been responsible for many tears and many sleepless nights. It’s especially hurtful when it’s your own people who add to the burden. My husband and I disagree about a number of things-including politics. He is loud, and often so abrasive on the internet that he looks nothing like the gentle soul I actually know him to be. And still, I am proud of him. And though this post was mostly about me and how my character wouldn’t allow any of these lies to be true, as long as Shaun stays on the side of justice, I will always go hard for him. I don’t see most of what is said by people about Shaun because I’m very careful to protect my peace and keep what little social media I do have private. I don’t read comments and I don’t Google his name. But when I do become aware, it takes every ounce of restraint I have to not hop online and completely go off on some of these liars.
There are people who are gullible and believe whatever they see tweeted. And then there are people who know better, and spread the lies anyway. Prominent people actually called Lee Merritt, one of Shaun’s best friends for 20 years, not knowing how close Lee and Shaun were, in an attempt to persuade Lee that Shaun has stolen money from some of the very people that Shaun and Lee advocate for together. As if Lee wouldn’t know if his clients had been stolen from! These people know exactly what they’re doing. And it is these people that I leave to God’s judgement. A lie may travel faster, but the truth always prevails. And though I hope he stops talking about it publicly, I will continue to encourage Shaun to pursue legal action against every person who so callously levies false claims against him and cause my family real harm, whether these people are Black, White, or otherwise.
