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VOX does an excellent job of breaking down the quagmire, rhetoric and distractions that pose as “news” on a daily basis in the United States and elsewhere.  THIS story is just one instance of how excellent journalism works. (Kudos to Vox Editor Ezra Klein.)

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VOX Identities

Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King is currently at the center of a controversy that has nothing to do with a police shooting or brutality — it’s, instead, about his personal life and racial identity.

Over the past several weeks, conservative media outlets have published multiple pieces disputing different claims King has made about his life over the years. And the latest accusations — which caused the story to trend on Twitter — have called into question whether King is biracial, as he claims.

There’s a bit of history to this conflict. But the fact that a self-identified biracial man is being chastised by conservative media outlets as part of an attempt to discredit him shows just how fluid the entire concept of race can be, and that makes it difficult to know who’s right and wrong when questions about race come up.

Conservative media outlets have questioned Shaun King’s background

Andrew Burton/Getty Images

King, who’s a blogger on the liberal Daily Kos, has been a very prominent face of the Black Lives Matter movement since the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. So any accusations leveled against him are a big deal to the cause, which aims to end racial disparities in the criminal justice system and police use of force.

In the latest accusations, Milo Yiannopoulos wrote in Breitbart, a conservative website, that King is not black or biracial. King, who grew up in Versailles, Kentucky, previously said his mom was white, and suggested he’s biracial. But the report cited a birth certificate obtained from the Kentucky Office of Vital Statistics that lists King’s father as Jeffery Wayne King, who is purportedly also white, according to Breitbart.

King quickly fired back at the accusations, saying on Twitter that his family history is very complicated, and restating that he is biracial. He also claimed that he didn’t lie about his race to obtain an Oprah Scholarship to attend Morehouse College, a historically black school. (Breitbart reported that the scholarship is only awarded to black men, but the college stated that it “does not grant admissions or scholarships based on race.”)

King, who’s a blogger on the liberal Daily Kos, has been a very prominent face of the Black Lives Matter movement since the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. So any accusations leveled against him are a big deal to the cause, which aims to end racial disparities in the criminal justice system and police use of force.

In the latest accusations, Milo Yiannopoulos wrote in Breitbart, a conservative website, that King is not black or biracial. King, who grew up in Versailles, Kentucky, previously said his mom was white, and suggested he’s biracial. But the report cited a birth certificate obtained from the Kentucky Office of Vital Statistics that lists King’s father as Jeffery Wayne King, who is purportedly also white, according to Breitbart.

King quickly fired back at the accusations, saying on Twitter that his family history is very complicated, and restating that he is biracial. He also claimed that he didn’t lie about his race to obtain an Oprah Scholarship to attend Morehouse College, a historically black school. (Breitbart reported that the scholarship is only awarded to black men, but the college stated that it “does not grant admissions or scholarships based on race.”)

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