We have a no-profanity-in-headlines rule around these parts, but fuck it today. I'm currently in Germany, in Bamberg where I spent some of the best three years of my life serving my nation. The last thing I wanted to do was have to hear about the shit that Shaun King has had to endure these last few days.
I'm on an iPhone with poor cellular data, so I can't offer a link-studded piece examining the various angles of this shit, so I'll be as brief as I can be: fuck those assholes, and fuck them to hell.
We have a nation that kills brown people at will, with no repercussions. After hundreds of years of that shit, we finally have a movement exposing that atrocity, and Shaun King is a key figure in that movement. So how does the right wing respond? By "investigating" Shaun, and claiming that he's not black, that he's faking it! Because, you know, being black is the key to becoming a Fortune 500 CEO and a life of richness and success.... Heck, maybe those conservatives believe their nonsense that "the blacks" have it so easy because of affirmative action and other "special" advantages.
The reality is that 1) fuck them, 2) why does it matter what color Shaun is? 3) fuck them, and 4) fuck them. Rather than join the fight against out-of-control police forces, they are trying to discredit Shaun King. That's your conservative priorities for you—attack the guy who is helping publicize this gross injustice. Imagine if we would've responded to the Tea Party movement by investigating the whiteness of its leaders. But we don't think like they do. We aren't degenerates like them.
But you know what? I expect that shit from conservatives. I would've expected better from CNN and Don Lemon, but they've joined the ranks of right-wing race-baiters. Congrats, Don and CNN for joining the rats on their sinking ship. Fuck you, too.
Shaun has already explained his situation. I told him he didn't have to explain shit, but because of the CNN hit piece he took that painful step to bare his family's difficult history in order to try to answer this bullshit. In the abstract, it's an eye-opening peek at the difficulties of dealing with race in the small-town South. But this is not an abstract, and that story was extracted under duress. So the assholes who questioned his heritage—and Don Lemon and CNN especially—can all go fuck themselves because they were wrong, wrong, and fucking wrong.
Finally, in case you are wondering why I am so angry, it's for two reasons: 1) I will fight to the end of the world for my staff and my community, but this is particularly emotional for me because 2) I've had my own heritage questioned, with people claiming I wasn't Latino or Latino enough, and there's really nothing uglier than having someone question your very identity.
So fuck everyone who has gone after Shaun. Fact is, they are accomplishing nothing but exposing the ugliness in their hearts. Shaun will continue to shine a light on the issues he's focused on, and we will continue to support Shaun in his efforts. In fact, we're doubling down by staffing up in this area. So if the intent was to hamper the Black Lives Matter movement ... well, in this case, it has only redoubled our resolve to support it.
