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Writer, blogger and police brutality activist Shaun King has been battling allegations that he is actually a white man posing as a Black person, not unlike the recent Rachel Dozeal scandal. While King maintains, rather ambiguously, that he is actually biracial, CNN‘s Don Lemon says that a “family member” tells him that King is actually white.

As we shared yesterday, the fervor around King’s racial makeup was sparked by an article from conservative news network Brietbart News alleging White was duping his fellow Black Lives Matter activists.

While King and others denied the allegations, news networks and major publications picked up the story hoping to get to the bottom of the matter. King’s visibility as an active voice in speaking out against police injustice has already landed him under critical lights from like-minded individuals and this latest matter has added fuel to the fire.

CNN held one of its usual roundtable discussions via CNN Tonight on all things King Wednesday evening, which continued to harp in on the fact that there isn’t enough evidence to back King’s biracial claim.

One panelist said that while it’s possible Brietbart and conservative pundits like Glenn Beck are seeking to destroy King’s name, he could easily stop all the chatter by producing a birth certificate or some kind of document stating his race.

Many who side with King, including rap artist Deacon The Villian from the rap group CunninLynguists, have posted various accounts of their knowledge of King’s background and have hit back at the race passing accusation. Yet there is a continued assault of King’s character taking place from not only the Right but other activists of color who have said they were suspicious of the activist in times past.

Lemon revealed that he and King have been texting one another where he told the host that this attack on him is actually about “derailing Black Lives Matter and the movement against police brutality” while adding “the reports are all lies” and that he will speak to the matter soon.

King did say in a series of tweets that he did lie about his race in order to receive a scholarship from Oprah Winfrey, which has since been deleted. King never clarified what he meant by that statement.

Watch CNN’s report below on Shaun King and his racial identity as it relates to his activist work below.

Photo: CNN