This week activist Shaun King has been attacked by conservative media who claim he is a white man lying about his racial identity. Writer and Activist Sil Lai Abrams shared the painful story of her ancestry on twitter to encourage people to think critically about the allegations against King.
Here is her story.
Something on my spirit that I want to share this morning about @shaunking & this blitzkrieg attack on him by the right wing— Sil Lai Abrams (@Sil_Lai) August 20, 2015 And @shaunking said in one of his tweets something about family secrets.— Sil Lai Abrams (@Sil_Lai) August 20, 2015 All anyone has to do is look at his parents and siblings and see that "one of these things is not like the other" @ShaunKing— Sil Lai Abrams (@Sil_Lai) August 20, 2015 Just because both of his parents listed on his birth certificate are white doesn't mean he is actually white. @ShaunKing— Sil Lai Abrams (@Sil_Lai) August 20, 2015 The reason why some family members look different in some cases is due to recessive genes. @ShaunKing— Sil Lai Abrams (@Sil_Lai) August 20, 2015 In other cases, someone had an affair or some form of sexual interaction with someone of another race. @ShaunKing— Sil Lai Abrams (@Sil_Lai) August 20, 2015 This is me with my biological mother & the man listed on my birth certificate as a child pic.twitter.com/np0CW8Jg8f— Sil Lai Abrams (@Sil_Lai) August 20, 2015 The brown baby in the man's arms is me. The white baby in my mother's arms is my sister May Lai.— Sil Lai Abrams (@Sil_Lai) August 20, 2015 The man in the photo is listed as my biological father on my birth certificate. He is NOT. That doesn't make me not black. #ShaunKing— Sil Lai Abrams (@Sil_Lai) August 20, 2015 My mother had an affair with a black man. I am the result of that.— Sil Lai Abrams (@Sil_Lai) August 20, 2015 The man on my birth certificate raised me as his own & didn't tell me he wasn't my biological father b/c he didn't want me to feel different— Sil Lai Abrams (@Sil_Lai) August 20, 2015 My family's need to hide a secret, devaluing the importance of racial identity & need for family unity trumped the TRUTH. #ShaunKing— Sil Lai Abrams (@Sil_Lai) August 20, 2015 I didn't find out I was Black until the man listed on my birth certificate told me the truth b/c the lie couldn't hold up any longer.— Sil Lai Abrams (@Sil_Lai) August 20, 2015 Family portrait circa 1984 (while they were still telling me that I was the man on my birth cert biological daughter pic.twitter.com/0yyBbpa3ra— Sil Lai Abrams (@Sil_Lai) August 20, 2015 Look at the photos, people. @Shaunking is not lying. He is choosing how or whether or not to share his family's story. It is his right.— Sil Lai Abrams (@Sil_Lai) August 20, 2015Questioning @shaunking's race is clearly an attempt by the right to silence an important voice for the #BlackLivesMatter movement— Sil Lai Abrams (@Sil_Lai) August 20, 2015 To reiterate: the whole point of my timeline is to present an alternative theory about the "birthers" attacking @shaunking's racial identity— Sil Lai Abrams (@Sil_Lai) August 20, 2015 And to push people to think non-linear about race based upon legal docs & family testimony in the face of photo evidence to the contrary— Sil Lai Abrams (@Sil_Lai) August 20, 2015 I simply want folks to put on their thinking caps & not accept what BREITBART & LIMBAUGH say based upon legal docs.— Sil Lai Abrams (@Sil_Lai) August 20, 2015 Photo: twitter.com/sil_lai
