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Update at 2:39 pm: According to a report on the Daily Beast, Shaun King’s father is not Black.

Prominent #BlackLivesMatter activist Shaun King has come under fire after a conservative media outlet reportedly outed him for claiming to be biracial when he is, according to reports, the son of two White parents.

King is highly regarded for his work as a justice columnist for DailyKos and as one of the faces of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Most recently, he has been preparing for the launch of his own organization, Justice Together, which is building a 50-state coalition against police brutality.

He has long claimed that his mother is White and his father is Black but according to an extensive article by Breitbart and an investigative article by The Blaze about his past, King’s credibility is now under attack. And his long list of accolades will no doubt be overshadowed by claims that he not only lied about his race to obtain a minority scholarship from Oprah Winfrey to attend Morehouse College, but also lied about having been involved in a racially charged attack in 1995.

What kind of Rachel Dolezal mess is this?!

MUST READ: The Myth Of ‘Transracial’: How Rachel Dolezal Introduced The World To The Next Level Of Cultural Appropriation

A prominent figure on Twitter, King took to his social media account to dispel several of the claims made in The Blaze’s article, but it seems he’s yet to confront the bold claim of Milo Yiannopoulos that he’s not Black:

In King’s litany of tweets Wednesday, he never once addressed whether or not either of his parents were Black. He simply tweeted poetic, attempting to dispel what the “hit” articles claimed, calling his family “one big mess,” just like many of us.

All of King’s tweets are cringe-worthy because he’s been forced to defend his character and his race, all while trying not to look like the new Rachel Dolezal. It’s both very real and very sad that in a post-Rachel world, defending your race has become a thing.

Yet perhaps the most unfortunate reality in all of this is that his credibility as an activist has been tarnished and honestly, regardless of whether or not he is Black, no one is going to believe him now.

We’ll keep you updated on this developing story.

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