Woke-warrior Deray McKesson dropped a pile of bricks on his fellow wannabe-black activist Shaun King in an article on Medium today, and it’s awesome.
Integrity.
A movement is only as strong as its integrity. Part of our collective work is to protect this integrity, even when, or especially when, doing so is uncomfortable or hard. It is in this spirit that I write, to address a lapse in integrity within the activism community so glaring that to be silent is to be complicit.
We never aim to replicate the power dynamic of the system we are up against — a system that embraces a devious lack of transparency, willingly sacrifices the vulnerable to protect itself, and replaces truth with convenient lies. Yet Shaun King has done just that.
Shaun has followed a uniform pattern over the years, a pattern that has compelled me to speak up, again. This is not the first time I have done so, and I am not alone. Johnetta Elzie and I were in a previous public disagreement with Shaun about issues of transparency and ethics that ended in his apology. Shaun also deleted all of his tweets and noted that he would focus on journalism and would not engage in attempted organizing or fundraising. Importantly, he made this commitment to others both publicly and privately. It is clear now that he did not keep those commitments and after a brief hiatus, re-emerged and began engaging in the same behaviors that caused the last public conflict.
It is important to note that Shaun’s journalism has done some good by bringing attention to stories that may have gone under-reported or overlooked. But the person who paints your house before he steals your car has still committed theft.
This isn’t the first time he did this, but he’s definitely ramped up his accusations, and he appears to be wanting others to do the same.
https://twitter.com/Nettaaaaaaaa/status/1172252638357983232Last week, I spoke off the record w/ Black women who were employed at the North Star w/ Shaun King about their experiences.
I appreciate the risk they took to speak w/ us about what took place at the North Star. Serious lapses in integrity led us here today.
— Johnetta Elzie (@Nettaaaaaaaa) September 12, 2019
But he does not often answer any of the questions or offer any resolution of contradictions raised, but instead, deflects. What’s more, he often bullies and intimidates those who ask questions at all, turning his ire especially at Black women, attempting to scare inquirers into silence.
When asked about the repeated organizations and lack of transparency on funding, he has replied noting that “failure is not fraud,” as if to suggest that questions raised do not warrant serious responses simply because he may have been an ineffective leader. But at a point, those who attempt to lead but consistently demonstrate that they cannot effectively lead should stop. We have reached that point with Shaun.
Now you all know how much we enjoy liberal-on-liberal rhetorical violence at the scoop. We hope you enjoyed it too.
Here’s our post from December 2015 when Deray ripped into Shaun King last.