How did Shaun King get from respected activist to being ridiculed as an imposter?

While starting as an advocate for those in need, over the years King has spurred a laundry list of controversies that experts say not only tarnished his name and made him the subject of social media ridicule, but harmed the communities he professes to protect.

“There was a time when he did good work, calling attention to racial violence with a clarity and efficiency no one else could — but lately it appears that he has gone astray and perhaps, the fame, money or other things have infected his moral compass or clarity,” associate law professor T. Anansi Wilson said.

The most recent example came in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. Judith and Natalie Raanan were visiting family in southern Israel when Hamas launched a surprise attack that killed 1,400 people; Hamas also took 200 hostages. The Ranaans were the first hostages released by Hamas since the attack, and have since been welcomed home by residents of their hometown in Evanston, Ill.

King claimed to have been part of a group that helped negotiate the Ranaans’ release. The family initially disputed this claim but later acknowledged King had been in contact with one family member.

However, the incident re-surfaced previous allegations of deceit and fraud by King. He has been called out for using activism for personal gain for years, according to other activists and citizen journalists, and has been embroiled in online conflicts with people who have called him out for his behavior.

King did not respond to a request from Reckon seeking comment for this story by time of publication.

He went back and forth about the situation with the Ranaans in order to justify his claims. “I did not reach out to this family. They reached out to me and said they were supporters of me, my work, and protested against police violence,” King said in an Instagram post Oct. 22.

In the past, he has even taken legal action against those who oppose him online.

“Until Shaun King is willing to answer for his questionable record, respect even those who question or attack him, and stop affirming white supremacy, true activists have and will continue to turn away from him or his ‘activism,’” journalist Juwan J. Holmes wrote in a 2019 Medium post discussing the 90th birthday year of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in which he compares the two activists of no relation.

On social media, the hashtag #ShaunKingSuccessStories went viral, with tweets calling out past incidents where the social media influencer overstated his role in Justice Together, or the guard dog scam, where $40,000 from his PAC was used to buy a family pet.

Meanwhile, people are having fun at King’s expense. “Shaun King traveled the country in 2022 and single handedly fixed all of the McFlurry and ice cream machines at McDonalds nationwide,” Twitter user ReignofApril said on Oct. 21.

“Shaun King produced the Renaissance tour. Y’all should be grateful,” Twitter user The Journalista also said on Oct. 21.

While the hashtag has provided entertainment, King’s troubled past raises questions about whether he distracts from the serious civil-rights issues facing us.

What really happened between the Raanan family and King?

Once the family released their statement, King said that he had been in contact with Ben Raanan, Natalie Raanan’s brother, since Oct. 9.

He posted a series of screenshots from alleged text messages with Raanan, including one from what he alleges is Ranaan’s Instagram account stating when the kidnapping, “first happened, I reached out to activist Shaun King, as I knew he had many connections with the Palestinian government.”

Still, Natalie’s father, Uri Raanan, told the Daily Beast that the family is not affiliated with King.

“Ben, my son was talking with him without anybody in the family knowing about it until today,” Uri said to journalists. “Our family in Israel posted this statement denying we knew him, before we learned about Ben talking to him. We have nothing further to say.”

To attempt to clear his name, King posted a long thread on both Twitter and Instagram with “receipts/records” of his conversations with Ben.

“From October 9th until 1 hour ago, I’ve talked, texted, and DM’d with this family nearly 100 times. Today though it’s trending that I made it all up. ⁣I am a respected husband, father, leader, grad student, and employee of multiple companies. I would NEVER make up any such thing. Doing so would throw my whole life away,” King said in the post’s caption. 

Calling King everything from “Chalka Con” to “Tupac CreditScore,” social media users, many of them African American, lamented what they felt was another example of King benefitting from the trauma and pain of marginalized communities in crisis.

“Why can’t #ShaunKing just find a normal 9-5 which does not include acting as savior of minorities? I’m sure there is a job description out there that exists for him….” Twitter user IIoma S. said.

King’s past

The current drama between King and the Raanans is not the first time that he has received negative public attention for his work in activism. In 2011, for example, King raised thousands of dollars to support climbing the Seven Summits (the tallest mountains on each of the seven continents). After only making it through four days of mountaineering school, King quit. The money is allegedly still MIA, according to social media users.

Later In 2019, King in a report said the majority of the money raised in a 2018 fundraiser to benefit the immigrant advocacy group RAICES was because of him. Yet, Dave Willner of RAICES told Kali Holloway for the Daily Beast that “it’s definitively false that any boosting he did was responsible for the amount of money that was raised…We have all the data…It definitely wasn’t him.”

Activist leaders say this matters because King and others like him hurt “the credibility of Black leadership and organizers and the ability of even courageous, ethical folks to lead,” Wilson said.

One example of this was when King started a fundraiser in the name of 12 year old police brutality victim Tamir Rice, without the permission of his mother, Samaria Rice. In response to a June 2021 podcast episode from King where he said they are on good terms, Samaria called him out on her Instagram. “Personally I don’t understand how you sleep at night. I never gave you permission to raise nothing. [A]long with the United States, you robbed me for the death of my son,” she said.

King was also called out by activists back in 2019 for his alleged “mishandling” of fundraising in the case of Jazmine Barnes (who was killed in 2021 at seven years old in a drive-by shooting) and not following through on promised rewards. Instead of taking the criticism, he threatened legal action towards the “young, Black and, in at least two cases, queer writers and activists,” Meagan Flynn wrote in the 2019 Washington Post article about the matter.

“If you have posted publicly that I have ever spent or stolen a single penny I’ve raised for families in this movement, I am opening a legal case against you…This is a complete fabrication,” King said in a since deleted 2019 tweet.

Editor’s note: One of the writers King threatened to sue is Reckon’s Partnerships Editor, Clarissa Brooks. King issued an apology to her in 2019 and Brooks did not participate in the writing or editing of this article.

In a since deleted 2019 tweet, Twitter user ShamGod said, “Q: If your activism is based around black ppl who have been crushed by the criminal justice system, and you are now using both your sphere of influence AND that same system to crush Black ppl who have been skeptical of your tactics… Are we allowed to query your activism?”

What the future holds

Despite the controversy, King still has a platform to continue his work. He has over 4 million followers on Instagram and over 1 million followers on Twitter.

“I do think it is important to speak clearly and issue warnings, so that the Black poor and working classes are not duped into giving their last dollars,” said Wilson. “This isn’t a work of discipline but one of care.”

However, activists urge people not to let what they are calling King’s ‘disruptions’ take people away from the real news, according to The Tre Mag publisher and Black culture activist Stephanie Holmes.

“Readers and consumers need to also take responsibility that they are ignoring the outlets that provide real news regarding the bigger issues and actively choosing to elevate the disruptive claims of King,” said Holmes. “Journalism is a business and King is doing what is his nature and best for his brand and bottom line.”