BLM activist Shaun King begs for donations to move out of lavish lakefront home, slams black community while describing himself as a 'civil rights leader'



Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King is begging his followers to donate money in order for him to move out of his $842,000 New Jersey home.

What's a brief history here?

King implored his followers to donate to his wife after saying that he was the subject of harassment after various news outlets published images of his private home.

King and his family have lived in the affluent North Brunswick home — which boasts five bedrooms, a gourmet kitchen, and a lakefront backyard — for less than a year.

King's wife, Rai-Tonicia King, purchased the home in November 2020.

The outspoken activist has taken flak for what some people say is his hypocrisy in speaking out for the poor and infirm while living in such lavish surroundings. He has also faced scrutiny over what some people have said is the lack of transparency in some of his public fundraising efforts.

In June, Tamir Rice's mother accused King of trying to profit from her son's 2014 death.

"Why do you think it's so important to tell folks we had a conversation?" Samaria Rice wrote in a post about a purported exchange between her and King. "Well, we talked and everything that was said was very toxic and uncomfortable for me to hear that you raised additional money and then say you did not want to bother me. Personally I don't understand how you sleep at night. [A]long with the United States, you robbed me for the death of my son."

A 2020 report stated that King had funneled a large amount of funds from a political action committee he co-founded to for-profit companies linked to Black Lives Matter leaders.

What are the details?

According to a Saturday report from The Grio, King — whose social media accounts are currently disabled or restricted — solicited donations through his wife to help the family defray the cost of moving.

In a now-viral Facebook post, King shared a picture of himself and family smiling at a dinner table.

King wrote, "That's my family a few months ago. In our home. At our dinner table. Happy. My wife bought this house. With her credit and income. An FHA loan. In a working class neighborhood. Because we couldn't afford to live in Brooklyn and wanted to own something now that we are both in our 40s. But now we're moving. It's devastating, honestly. The wife and kids have all cried over this. Our home has been plastered across Fox News, across the blogs, and all over Instagram. The actual address is everywhere."

He continued, "And it's clearly not safe anymore — which was always the point. It's not lavish. It's not excessive. Those were lies. But it's ruined at this point. Thousands of you have asked me and @MrsRaiKing how you can help us during this difficult time as we move our whole family out of our beloved home to a safe place."

At that point in the post, King shared the handles for his wife's CashApp, Venmo, PayPal, and Zelle accounts.

"We now need to find a new home, relocate, and have 24/7 security," King's post concluded. "The costs are outrageous. And to be frank — we just don't have it. We weren't prepared for this. We didn't want this. Not at all. I was minding my own business. She damn sure was."

What else?

Just two days earlier, King castigated those in the black community who shared his private information with what he said was "glee."

In part, the self-described "civil rights leader" wrote, "I suppose it might always be this way. I don't know.⁣⁣My wife bought this home, her first, after working her ass off for 20+ years. It took her nearly a year to even be able to purchase it. ⁣It was a quiet and peaceful refuge for her, for our 5 kids, for the dogs, and for our mothers. And it wasn't excessive. Again, she got a literal FHA loan to purchase it. I'm not even on the loan.⁣"

Noting that he believes the family will "never be safe here again," King went on to bash members of the black community.

"[S]hame on every black man and woman who shared it with glee," he wrote. "Shame on you for what you've done to [the family]. That you've fallen for so many lies about me, and decided to turn the lives of my wife and kids upside down in the process has taken a chunk out of my soul.⁣"

"I'll be honest with you," he admitted. "I'm going to be bitter over this for a very long time. ⁣I took July off of social media to just be with my family and then this. ⁣I don't deserve this.⁣They damn sure don't deserve this.⁣But here we are. ⁣I'm going to need a few weeks to get us set up somewhere else, but this will clearly never work for us.⁣"

He concluded, "@MrsRaiKing — you are the best. Sometimes I wish you never had the burden of even being connected to me and the work I do. I hate that wives and partners of so many civil rights leaders have to endure all of this. It's just not OK. ⁣I love you and the kids so much. ⁣I'll do all I can to make this right. ⁣Please pray for us. By name." ⁣

Anything else to know?

In a since-deleted Instagram post, prolific civil rights attorney Lee Merritt reportedly asked for donations from his hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers.

He wrote, "My good friends @shaunking and @mrsraiking are being forced to move from their home after national media publications printed their home address claiming they lived in a house too lavish for their incomes. Shaun is one of the nation's leading movement journalist and Rai is an education professional who purchased this modest home after years of saving and planning. What is happening to the King family is fundamentally unfair and heartbreaking but for the sake of the safety of their children they have to move. Security advisors have caution them to do so quickly."

The post concluded, "This is an expensive proposition and will force them to sell their home at a loss. I'm asking you to send them your support today. These two are literally married to the movement and will stop what they are doing at any given moment to serve the needs of others. They are in need of our help today. Let's show up for them."

Shaun King gets torched by internet after allegedly using death of Chadwick Boseman to promote his book



Activist Shaun King triggered another wave of backlash against him on Saturday after he allegedly used the death of "Black Panther" star Chadwick Boseman to promote his new book.

What did King say?

In an email sent to supporters on Saturday, King wrote:

I hope you are hanging in there. Yesterday I sent an email checking in on everybody - and just a few hours later we learned of the death of Chadwick Boseman. Life is so very fragile. Tomorrow is not promised.

Over the past 6 years of the Black Lives Matter Movement I have traveled to 47 states - teaching organizing, learning, and leading. And for all 6 years, everywhere I go, people ask me, "Shaun, how do I actually use my life, my skills, my time, my energy to impact and change the world?"

My book, MAKE CHANGE, is a 272 page answer to that question.

King then directed supporters to book retailers where his book can be purchased.

Shaun King is using Chadwicks death to sell books, he claims don’t make him any money. I’m so tired of SK profiting… https://t.co/M9v5YD3PIk
— Fidelity to Facts, Science & Logic (@Fidelity to Facts, Science & Logic)1598720122.0

What was the response?

The blowback was so fierce that King's name trended on Twitter Saturday evening as tens of thousands of people condemned him for apparently leveraging the death of Boseman to promote his book.

  • "If this is the Civil Rights movement of our time, please continue to document who Shaun King actually is, a fraud," one person said.
  • "This makes me absolutely sick. What a horrible, horrible thing to do. And this part about 'being paid last year' — that's called an advance, and he got that AND will get more if more books are sold over a certain threshold. Which is what this ploy is. How disgusting. Pure filth," another person responded.
  • "Can...he just not grift for a whole 24 hours?Disgusting," another person said.
  • "There's a reason God didn't bless him with pigment, so you can see right through him," another person said.
  • "Shaun King is reaching levels of Grifting never thought possible. He is really going hard for the Grifter of the Year Award," another person responded.
  • "Do not give @shaunking your money, your time, or your respect," another person said.
  • "Hello folks, publisher here.When Shaun King says he doesn't 'make a dime' off of selling his books, and he was already paid for them 'a year ago?' If that statement is true, what it means is his book has yet to earn back his advance on royalties," one person explained.

In response, King said he did not regret sending the email, claiming he does not earn a profit from his book.

"I literally do not make a penny off of sales for my book. Nothing. Got paid a year ago to write it. I had a mass email pre-scheduled to go out this morning about my book. I updated the email to also mention the death of Chadwick. And I don't regret it. At all. There's that," he wrote on Twitter.

I literally do not make a penny off of sales for my book. Nothing. Got paid a year ago to write it.I had a mass… https://t.co/nGV0bBOvmN
— Shaun King (@Shaun King)1598730843.0

King has been routinely involved in controversy and has been regularly criticized for his lack of transparency with regard to fundraising.

From Newsweek:

King has been embroiled in controversy. Though he is well-known as an activist, journalist and was one of Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) surrogates in both the 2016 and 2020 campaign, he has been accused of raising money for causes without properly accounting for where the money went, according to The Daily Beast.

In September 2019, activist DeRay Mckesson wrote a piece for Medium accusing King of a "lack of transparency" during fundraising campaigns for the anti-police violence organization Justice Together in 2015 and a Black independent media site The North Star in 2018.

King, however, denies all allegations against him.

Shaun King demands Kenosha PD identify cop who shot Jacob Blake — or he'll just start naming cops 'who may or may not be him'



Left-wing activist Shaun King is at it again.

After two days of appearing to advocate for increased chaos and mayhem in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as he demanded the complete dismantling of the police in America and declared he would not call for peace, King issued a warning to the Kenosha Police Department.

If the KPD did not name the police officer who shot Jacob Blake, then King would start naming cops from the department "who may or may not be him" — which would clearly put the lives of those officers and their families in danger.

What happened, and what did he say?

Following the police shooting of Blake on Sunday evening, King took to Twitter to reject calls for peace.

"Nah. I'm not going to call for peace," King said. "We've tried peace. For years. Y'all don't understand that language."

"We are calling for a complete dismantling of American policing," he continued. "It's NOT broken. It was built to work this way. And mayhem is the consequence. You earned it."

He later reiterated his call to tear down the police, saying that firing and arresting the cop who shot Blake was "not even close" to being what he and his movement wanted.

"[W]hat I am telling you, is that we've crossed a point where that's not even close to being all we're calling for," King wrote.

He followed that with a statement Monday that the entire police system "must be dismantled."

So it was not surprising to see King tweet a threat to the Kenosha Police Department on Tuesday that he and his ilk might just resort to essentially accusing various cops within the KPD of shooting Blake.

"To the Kenosha Police Department," King said, "If you do not name the officer who brutally shot Jacob Blake on Sunday, we will simply begin naming officers from your department who may or may not be him."

"F*** it," he continued. "Your protection of his identity is unethical. What's his name?"

Image source: Twitter screenshot, redacted, via @shaunking

He followed that tweet with another post noting the case of a Kenosha officer named Luke Courtier who is reportedly in police custody because people merely believed he was the cop who shot Blake.

King then noted, "POLICE COULD END THIS RIGHT NOW."

Which means that King was clearly aware in his original post that just naming officers "who may or may not" have shot Blake would put those officers, as well as their families and neighbors, in mortal danger.

Image source: Twitter screenshot via @shaunking