Shaun King Slammed For Using Chadwick Boseman's Name To Promote New Book

Source: Scott Eisen / Getty

Alexander Scamilton, aka Shaun King, found himself in trouble on Twitter again. The “activist” found himself in hot water when screenshots of a promotional email plugging his new book also mentioned Chadwick Boseman’s death despite it not even being 24 hours since the world learned of his passing. The email began: “I hope that you are hanging in there. Yesterday I sent an email checking in on everybody — and just a few hours later, we learned of the death of Chadwick Boseman. Life is so very fragile. Tomorrow is not promised.”

After briefly sprinkling in the late actor’s name, King would go on to plug his book Make Change: How to Fight Injustice, Dismantle Systemic Oppression, and Own Our Future and immediately directing potential readers to his online store. Twitter users understandably disgusted by what they saw, and the use of Boseman’s name immediately called him King using Boseman’s death to promote his book. Rewire. News editor Imani Gandy flamed King on Twitter while questioning people for continuing to support him saying: “Shaun King is using the death of Chadwick Boseman to sell his book, and it is GROTESQUE. What is wrong with him? What is wrong with YOU THAT YOU KEEP SUPPORTING HIM?”

King responded to the allegations with his own Tweet and stood by his decision to use Boseman’s name in it stating: “I literally do not make a penny off of sales for my book. Nothing. Got paid a year ago to write it. I had a mass email pre-scheduled to go out this morning about my book. I updated the email to also mention the death of Chadwick. And I don’t regret it. At all. There’s that.” https://twitter.com/shaunking/status/1299797481979510785?s=20 This latest incident with Shaun King followed the Black folks socially distancing themselves from him after he threatened to drop names of cops in response to Jacob York’s shooting. Regardless, people are not pleased that Chadwick’s name even made it into that email. You can peep the reactions in the gallery below. — Photo: Scott Eisen / Getty