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A Moment About Shaun King

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I've been tweeting about Shaun King intermittently for about 6 weeks after he announced he was fundraising for yet another organization, Flip the Senate. I thought it would be a good idea to put my tweets––and others––in one place. Here they are.

I've been tweeting about Shaun King intermittently for about 6 weeks after he announced he was fundraising for yet another organization, Flip the Senate. I thought it would be a good idea to put my tweets––and others––in one place. Here they are.

  1. And if people want to call me a fraud? That’s fine. I don’t know what I’ve done that is fraudulent. Everything I’ve said is backed up with receipts. I’m just a legal journo who writes about repro rights. I don’t beg for money or create multiple failed organizations so 🤷🏾‍♀️

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  2. More info on ’s scams: Twitter search his name or the hashtag and make a decision for yourself. It’s your money. But if you’re trying to do good—which I’m sure you are—your money is better spent elsewhere—NOT on .

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  3. Shaun King be like

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  4. I’m seriously considering doing a video series on each of his scams. If you donate 100K, I’ll record the videos on a mountain.

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  5. If you want to flip the senate, give your money to , an organization that already exists and has been doing this work for nearly 4 years. Stop giving your money to or any organization he starts. He cannot be trusted with it.

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  6. This is how treats his donors. He takes their money and when they ask for accountability, he blocks them. It’s a scam. Don’t give this man your money.

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  9. Probably not going to shut up about for a while. Sorry. If you feel the need to unfollow, I understand. (Not sorry.)

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  10. This legit made my heart sink. , please have someone look into ’s history of stealing from, threatening, and intimidating Black women, as well as misappropriating funds raised from vulnerable people. There are so many people far more deserving of this honor.

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  11. This man seriously put out a report written by his friends—one that includes a demonstrable falsehood and fails to include 160K of compensation he received—and people are rolling up on me like I’m supposed to be ashamed and apologize to him. The grift is strong.

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  12. Shaun King promised daily news broadcasts back in February. There’s zero content under broadcasts. He’s only doing one podcast of the 4 he promised. And the articles section is a blog. This is Frederick Douglass’s legacy? For a half milli a month? What are you paying him for?

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  13. If y’all want to keep giving this man money hand over fist, at least ask yourselves what you’re paying for. We need Black media. As much of a scam artist and hustler that I think Shaun King is, I had hoped that he would at least be for real when it came to Northstar. Nope.

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  14. I have it on good authority—from a confidential source—that people are paying five and $10,000 a month for Northstar. Shaun King has those membership levels listed on his website and people are paying it. Imagine what a real Black media company could do with that money.

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  15. And where are the deliverables? He hired a Lead Producer in February... to produce what, exactly? Where are these daily news broadcasts? It’s hard not to think that Shaun King is pocketing your money and putting out the bare minimum, which is blog posts and one podcast. 👀👀

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  16. Even if it were 30K members at $1 a month, that’s 30 grand a month to put out one podcast and some blog posts. Imagine what a Black media company dedicated to original and investigative reporting on issues facing the Black community could do with $30,000 a month.

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  17. At a certain point, you gotta respect the hustle. He’s got people giving him thousands of dollars a month to put out one podcast and a handful of blog posts. I mean— in terms of American Hustler, look no further than Shaun King. He’s good at separating people from their money.

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  18. Black people are in crisis in this country and Shaun King is making hundreds of thousands of dollars and doing hardly anything to help Black people besides circulating trauma porn and RTing links to other people’s fundraisers. But white folks love him so 🤷🏾‍♀️

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  19. “Tweet this. Tweet that. And give me all your money.” - Shaun King, basically

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  20. It amazes me how gullible people are. Truly. If you have the stomach to be a scam artist, you can make a lot of money off the backs of Black people.

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  21. Shaun King has not produced a single piece of reporting or journalism that you can’t find on The Root. Not one thing. Also, he posted his “fundraising report” podcast to Northstar which seems inappropriate at best.

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  22. I know I probably sound like a fucking obsessed person harping on this Shaun King stuff, but it’s actually important. WE NEED BLACK MEDIA. And he is siphoning money from the very people who could donate to establish Black media. What he’s doing to Northstar is a travesty.

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  23. It is straight up disrespectful to Frederick Douglass’ legacy. And people can’t talk about it because Shaun King has got folks trapped behind NDAs and has a team of lawyers and a crisis management team ready to pounce. It’s outrageous. It really is.

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  24. But my question was directed at you. You or he could just answer it here. I don’t even have a Sirius subscription so I’m not calling in. Hopefully asks substantive questions because people deserve substantive answers.

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  25. Because he retweeted the link. Any fundraiser link that Shaun king shared, he’s counting in his $34.5 million. If that isn’t suspect as hell, I don’t know what is

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  26. 4 Sep 2019

    I was one of them, once! After the Clarissa Brooks incident I did a 180. I can't claim to support and believe women if I didn't support and believe Clarissa. And after a lot of research, I was 100% on her side. The internet is full of insightful black women to listen to instead.

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  27. This is super helpful. I am terrible at spreadsheets

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  28. So... really did go on ’s show and either lied or admitted he committed tax fraud. I will explain. 1. The report specifically says that they looked at his 2013 tax returns, so not just Black Lives Matter from 2014 and on. 2. The HopeMob 990 is from 2013.

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  29. 3. Shaun King could not possibly have received the $160K payment ‘over a period of a few years’ because he cofounded HopeMob in 2012. And the 990 showing he received $160K is from 2013. So that’s either a lie or an admission that his HopeMob tax filing is fraudulent.

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  30. 5. I’m also saying that this ✌🏾independent panel of experts✌🏾😭 somehow reviewed Shaun king’s 2013 tax returns, but missed $160K in compensation from HopeMob in 2013 or neglected to include it? OR Shaun didn’t report it. That’s tax fraud. It makes the entire report suspect.

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  31. This interjection from Allen Boomer at is literally preposterous: No, Shaun King did not take the initiative to pull this together. He was supposed to provide this information in March. He would never have done it if I hadn’t made that parody video a month ago.

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  32. And finally, when it comes to the about $21 million that Shaun King says he raised for RAICES? He did not raise that money. Why is he taking credit for it? When Charlotte and Dave Willner from San Francisco actually raised the money?

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  33. There’s not even a link in Shaun King’s report to a tweet where he shared that RAICES fundraiser; just a note from Erika Andiola saying that he’s always been supportive of her. Being supportive of someone is not raising $21 million for their org. He shouldn’t have included it.

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  34. I simply don’t understand why he can’t be honest about his fundraising. He is hiding something and this “independent report” is a misdirect intended to make Shaun king look transparent when he’s being anything but transparent. It’s quite ridiculous and quite shameless.

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  35. Hiring friends and associates to be on your panel of experts is the very definition of NOT independent. And if Shaun King is seriously offering up his records for someone else to take a pass at? I will do a fundraiser to pay for a forensic accountant.

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  36. Also, this thread on Shaun King’s disastrous interview on ’s show is spot on.

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  37. Why is he telling people to send him $1000 in cash? Oh my God. Shaun King is really the Creflo Dollar of online activism.

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  38. And here’s a rip off report account regarding HopeMob. I’ve seen similar reports related to almost every single one of Shaun King’s ventures. So let’s talk some more about how every single dollar he raised went to families. Issa lie.

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  39. This thread on Shaun King is excellent too.

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  40. I deleted a tweet yesterday about Shaun King because someone pointed out that there was no evidence that he actually said what he said and meant it, as opposed to having been quoting someone. I can’t find the person who brought it up, so hopefully they see this. You were right.

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  41. I’m gonna retweet this because it’s actually baffling that intelligent people on this app are swallowing Shaun King’s nonsense report. He took nearly 40% of the proceeds from Hope mob in 2013. FORTY PERCENT. And then went on some dude’s radio show and lied about it.

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  42. Yeah I heard about this one. I don’t see any evidence that Shaun King sent any food whatsoever to anyone. It’s not a coincidence that his ✌🏾report✌🏾 is silent on his pre-2013 scams.

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  43. Also, Shaun King did not raise $21M for immigration advocacy. He did not raise that RAICES money but he included it in his fundraising total. He is a liar. He lies. If that’s the sort of guy you want to hold up as the latest civil rights activist, go for it. It’s a no from me.

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  44. Manipulators are good at finding your weak spot and exploiting it. Shaun King has found white people’s weak spot—wanting to help black liberation but not knowing really what to do—and he is exploiting it. He’s got y’all thinking that giving him money is helping Black people.

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  45. You have a choice to make. You can look at all the evidence and decide for yourself whether Shaun King is the guy you want to continue giving your money to. If it is, I don’t know what to tell you. If it’s not, divert that money to an org that needs it and will use it properly.

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  46. Please take the time to read this and then *stop giving your money to Shaun King*. It may be hard to admit that you were used or manipulated. There’s no shame in being duped by a con man. There is, however, shame in continuing to be duped because you’re overly prideful.

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  47. Whatever money you are donating to Shaun King or any of his many projects, stop it. Donate that money to organizations and activists that are actually working to uplift and liberate Black people. My personal choice would be an abortion fund or Stacey Abrams’ org Fair Fight.

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  48. White people? This message is for you. YOU ARE NOT HELPING BLACK PEOPLE BY GIVING SHAUN KING MONEY. You’re just not. If you want to help as you say you do, it requires more than giving a charlatan hundreds of dollars. That’s the straight truth.

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  49. Replying to
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  50. I also found the $17,500 grant. It's real, but its existence probably makes the lack of tax filings even more problematic.

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  51. I’m baffled. The report is not an exhaustive list of all of Shaun King’s fundraisers: - the fundraiser for finding the neo-Nazis is not mentioned - The report says they looked at his *2013* taxes but didn’t say anything about his HopeMob windfall This man has to stop lying.

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  52. Also, Shaun King DID NOT DO THE RAICES FUNDRAISER. He didn’t even tweet a link to it, according to *his own report*. He just took credit for other people raising 21 million dollars for immigration advocacy. It’s wildly dishonest.

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  53. 12 Sep 2019

    I was one of the first anchors hired to host The North Star’s “newscast” I worked there for about 8 weeks before I was fired without warning. I never met Shaun. He never spoke to me, and when my co-anchors and I tried to reach out to him for answers, he refused to talk to us.

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  54. A little under an hour ago, Shaun King DMed me to ask whether I 'd read the report he released on his finances. I replied that I had, and asked him whether he'd like me to tweet a list of the questions I thought it left unanswered.

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  55. A few minutes ago, I got my answer: He blocked me.

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  56. 12 Sep 2019

    Finally people are begin to open their eyes. Years ago we were laughed at for pointing out that $200k was unaccounted for from the Twitter-based Twit4Change campaign that Eva Longoria fronted for Shaun & the Home for campaign. Haitians never trusted again.

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  57. I think Shaun King was trying to say that nobody was paid OFF for this report which is irrelevant since his ✌🏾experts✌🏾 benefit from his fundraising scams whether monetarily or through access to his platform. Somebody should have been paid to do an independent unbiased audit.

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  58. Shaun King is sliding into everyone’s DMs pleading for help. His associate Becky Bonds is as well. People have raised legitimate questions that he refuses to answer. If you press him to answer these questions, he will block you despite his claims of welcoming sincere criticism.

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  59. Shaun King and his associates like to operate behind the scenes, because they do not want to be held publicly accountable. It’s easier to convince people you think are important on a case by case basis that you’re not a fraud. Here’s what happened when tried.

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  60. I talked to people who are affiliated with Northstar off the record. did too. wrote his piece in consultation with multiple Black women, including Johnetta Elzie, Leslie Mac, and me. This is not about vs. . It’s about Shaun King.

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  61. If you don’t believe my receipts or the testimony of the Black women who have been talking about Shaun King for five years, think of it this way: he is currently in control of anywhere from $30,000-$300,000 a month for Northstar and is producing very little of value.

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  62. We need a Black run media company especially in the run-up to the 2020 election. Why are we putting $30-$300K *per month* in the hands of Shaun King who is—by the accounts of folks working at Northstar—actively sabotaging the project so that he can keep more of the revenue?

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  63. I simply do not understand it.

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  64. I will say this: If you work at Northstar currently and have concerns about the way that organization is being run, my email address is in my profile and you can email me. I will talk to you. I will keep your information confidential. Become a whistleblower.

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  65. I understand you may be terrified because you‘re trapped behind an NDA, and Shaun King has an army of lawyers, but I will NEVER break your confidence under any circumstances.

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  66. I hope every activist trapped behind an NDA will breach it; Shaun King can’t sue all of you at once without blowback. Not now. Not with the information that’s out there. But in any event, feel free to contact me.

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  67. For the record, I think that should resign his position at and hand the entire operation over to , his original partner. That would be the first step towards justice. Shaun is not fit to carry Frederick Douglass‘ legacy.

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  68. And if people want to call me a fraud? That’s fine. I don’t know what I’ve done that is fraudulent. Everything I’ve said is backed up with receipts. I’m just a legal journo who writes about repro rights. I don’t beg for money or create multiple failed organizations so 🤷🏾‍♀️

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  70. He turned Frederick Douglass’ legacy into a Ponzi scheme. How are y’all letting him get away with this?

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  71. I’ve already spoken to some staff. My email is in profile. Everything will be kept as confidential as you desire. Needless to say, Shaun King is mismanaging , just like he has mismanaged his other failed projects. He needs to resign and reinstate .

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  72. Shaun King can: - account for the 160K windfall he got from HopeMob in 2013 - explain why the report says the experts reviewed his 2013 tax returns yet did not mention the 160K he received in 2013 - he can address me directly and stop trying to turn this into a feud with deray

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  73. Shaun King also can explain: - why he raised thousands of dollars to climb mountains, demanded airline miles from donors to fly his family to Seattle to watch him climb Mt. Rainer; lasted 4 days in mountains climbing training and then quit, presumably pocketing THOUSANDS

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  74. Shaun King can also explain: - why he fired the entire staff of northstar in ATL - why he is raking in AT A MINIMUM—according to his own claims of membership—$30K PER MONTH (And likely much more) For Northstar and not producing the content he promised

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  75. And by the way, I wasn’t tweeting brand new when I made my “Shaun King be like” parody video on August 5. I was merely amplifying 5 YEARS’ WORTH OF EVIDENCE AND TESTIMONY FROM BLACK WOMEN. Women like Ashley Yates, Goldie Taylor, Leslie Mac, Clarissa Brooks, Aurielle Marie etc

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  76. It’s also about the fact that every day Shaun King continues to shit on Frederick Douglass‘s legacy by running like a fucking Ponzi scheme. Every day he is diverting money that could be going to people actually working for Black people and not themselves.

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  77. 14 Sep 2019

    Can someone forward this to Rai King since I’ve been blocked by Shaun King and ask her about the time he started Life Goals University, used the funds to take his family to Africa, then NEVER finished the course.

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  78. 14 Sep 2019

    I disputed with my bank after the second month, but many (at least 300 people) were charge $50 a month and got nothing.

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  79. 15 Sep 2019

    Then after Life Goal University, Shaun King followed up with this fundraiser

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  80. 15 Sep 2019

    Many folks don’t know that they pulled these same stunts in the church world. He started an entire church and then just left it. When folks wanted accountability, she wrote an entire post about how Christians were attacking her family because his ideas were forward thinking.

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  81. 15 Sep 2019

    And be clear: he started that church after getting fired and coming on here and naming his prominent former boss a pedophile. He claimed to have had proof for years and never produced it. Some of the young men he said told them this came on here and said he was lying.

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  82. 15 Sep 2019

    When that blew up, they took to their spaces to say he was being persecuted because he was standing against sexual abuse against children in the church and that he would not stop until his former boss was held accountable. Chile...that fight vanished when he started his church.

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  83. 15 Sep 2019

    And here’s the thing-many of us were still rocking with him at the time and still tried to call him in over this. I know because I was one of them and we did it here. We supported him but we knew he was using sexual abuse as a platform to get back at his boss. It was gross.

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  84. 15 Sep 2019

    This isn’t to say his former boss is innocent. I don’t know. What I know is he got fired, took to Twitter to say his former boss was a pedophile and the young men he said told them this took to Twitter to say he was lying and, though he said, he’d take up the fight- he didn’t.

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  85. 15 Sep 2019

    Many progressive Black Christians have been tired of Shaun [and Rai] King long before they ventured into social justice because they basically tried to catch a wave on all the things that frustrated us with church only for us to realize they were trying to hit a lick.

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  86. 15 Sep 2019

    We believed him. We supported him. We defended him...only to look stupid. When he started moving to every part of the country every other month and asked us to fund it, we did because we believed he was breaking new ground.

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  87. 15 Sep 2019

    And, when he told us about his new social justice efforts, he grounded them in the revolutionary, freedom fighting Jesus that many of us were just fully coming to know. In short, he saw our church trauma, used it as a come up and, when that failed, he moved on to the next thing.

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  88. 15 Sep 2019

    So be clear: yes, Black women have been talking about how trifling Shaun is in social justice spaces for some time but progressive Black Christians told y’all about him BEFORE that. Him starting and stopping a church ain’t a footnote in his SJ career. It was more calculated.

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  89. 15 Sep 2019

    That Shaun was even able to become an activist and organizer is because folks ignored people who said, “this dude ain’t right” before he was able to reinvent himself.

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  90. 15 Sep 2019

    This is what makes it even more ugly. Shaun [and Rai] have exploited two of the most sacred parts of Black life: our faith and our fight for freedom. They treated both as a means to live in delusion and escape accountability. They knew/know what they’re doing.

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  91. 15 Sep 2019

    At this point, I have no faith that Shaun will ever be held accountable because men can always escape accountability. And, though she repeatedly does this to herself, I hate when a sister is made to look like a complete idiot behind the foolishness of the man she loves.

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  93. 15 Sep 2019
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  94. 15 Sep 2019

    Here's the thing about Shaun that many of you are forgetting or ignoring: many of us were once supporters and know he has the capacity, within community, to be an actual force for the Beautiful without harming others through his ego.

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  95. For the love of smothered and covered biscuits: just answer the questions. What kind of argument is this? How would you know if someone had stolen money and not gotten caught if they never got caught? Is this one of those brain teasers? THE DOCTOR IS A WOMAN!

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  96. He’s super grateful to know the 500K people on his email list and call them friends? He is literally ridiculous.

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  97. had a 40th birthday party *in June*, but somehow it’s also his 40th birthday *today*, and you need to give him money so that he can open up a New York office for the PAC that he launched to “Flip the Senate.” It’s pathological at this point.

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  98. Also, how is ’s podcast The Breakdown an extension of his PAC when The Breakdown is the only podcast featured at the Northstar? Why is he commingling the Northstar business with his PAC? Make it make sense.

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  99. He’s moved on from The North Star Which is simply a blog, closed the Atlanta studio/office in July and is now raising money to open an office for the new venture in NY? And the Podcast y’all are supporting as a part of the North Star is now somehow a part of the PAC?

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  100. Have you ever seen an online publication that has zero content on the home page? This is bananas. How is this ok? How is this speaking truth to power? How is this worth 30K to 300K per month? What are people paying for? It’s been 10 months. We need real Black media!

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