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Black Lives Matter Activist Shaun King responds to grifter accusations with 5 years of tax returns and 72 page report

Midramble

Midramble

Force of Habit
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
10,454
San Francisco
fuchsdh said:
The 990 linked in Twitter above is corroborated by this copy from the Foundation center: http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/273/273204358/273204358_201312_990.pdf

I'm terrible with IRS stuff and the EIN on IRS' site is pulling up an earlier Haiti charity started by Shaun King, not HopeMob.
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This is super weird. I can't find any tax data on HopeMob at all. It's not currently registered as a 501c3 and an actual EIN (27-3204358 from that doc) search on the official IRS site (https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/) only shows A Home in Haiti and a single 2011 filing claiming less than $50k when online claims said the nonprofit pulled in millions. Online searching only finds non official references to HopeMob's tax documents. I can't seem to find any official record of it being a registered 501c3 ever.

His scholarship fund did give students somewhere around $30k (very rough) over a number of years. That's all I've been able to find so far. Guess I'll have to read his own report to get a list of organizations he backs. Haven't dove into the financials of the church he leads yet.
 
Boiled Goose

Boiled Goose

Banned
Nov 2, 2017
9,999
Midramble

Midramble

Force of Habit
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
10,454
San Francisco
Midramble said:
This is super weird. I can't find any tax data on HopeMob at all. It's not currently registered as a 501c3 and an actual EIN (27-3204358 from that doc) search on the official IRS site (https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/) only shows A Home in Haiti and a single 2011 filing claiming less than $50k when online claims said the nonprofit pulled in millions. Online searching only finds non official references to HopeMob's tax documents. I can't seem to find any official record of it being a registered 501c3 ever.

His scholarship fund did give students somewhere around $30k (very rough) over a number of years. That's all I've been able to find so far. Guess I'll have to read his own report to get a list of organizations he backs. Haven't dove into the financials of the church he leads yet.
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Ok, just read the report and it seems the report claims the $30m-ish he's raised is specifically on other people's fundraisers that he has signal boosted (mostly GoFundMes), not his own organizations. The largest one specifically being a claim of $20m towards Fundraiser for RAICES (https://www.facebook.com/donate/490507544717085/10101990272230479/). A bit weird claiming credit for the full $20m that they raised even though it wasn't started by him, though I do not know the context specifically of that fundraiser to know if it's funds were 99% as a result of his public voice (which is an obvious tool for good he has).

The fact that his public voice has helped many fundraisers, which seems to be the main point of the report, is undeniable, so is the fact that he co-founded the Real Justice PAC. That said the unanswered questions around his own organizations and the stretching of his impact in fundraising does raise a few eyebrows.

Edit: The report contains zero tax data or even reference to the tax data other than the report maker saying they looked at 5 years of tax data. Even then, the data that would be in there (money actual donated or earned) is never mentioned in the report, nor is it the focus/content of the report.
 
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Midramble

Midramble

Force of Habit
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
10,454
San Francisco
Midramble said:
Ok, just read the report and it seems the report claims the $30m-ish he's raised is specifically on other people's fundraisers that he has signal boosted (mostly GoFundMes), not his own organizations. The largest one specifically being a claim of $20m towards Fundraiser for RAICES (https://www.facebook.com/donate/490507544717085/10101990272230479/). A bit weird claiming credit for the full $20m that they raised even though it wasn't started by him, though I do not know the context specifically of that fundraiser to know if it's funds were 99% as a result of his public voice (which is an obvious tool for good he has).

The fact that his public voice has helped many fundraisers, which seems to be the main point of the report, is undeniable, so is the fact that he co-founded the Real Justice PAC. That said the unanswered questions around his own organizations and the stretching of his impact in fundraising does raise a few eyebrows.

Edit: The report contains zero tax data or even reference to the tax data other than the report maker saying they looked at 5 years of tax data. Even then, the data that would be in there (money actual donated or earned) is never mentioned in the report, nor is it the focus/content of the report.
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Another addition, The Social Practice LLC (who co wrote the report) from 3/1 to 6/17 received roughly $90k from King's Real Justice PAC. I am assuming for this report.

FEC link here
 
metalslimer

metalslimer

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
9,558
Dude is clearly pulling the grift, though that doesn't mean it invalidates some of the social justice things he has brought attention to. I still don't know what I feel about him in general.
 

Deleted member 14459

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1,874
Detective Loki said:
I guess I just wasn't fully aware of who he was.

I remember Rachel Dolezal and how that whole thing went down.
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Enclined to believe you knew full well who he was - equally assuming knowledge that he might be one of the the few people whose race identity you can get away with questioning - as part of the 'identity politics' of progressive fora
 
Zekes

Zekes

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,697
Do people not realize Black people come in different shades smh

On King; the only thing I've ever really heard about dude is controversies
 

Deleted member 14459

User requested account closure
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Cabbagehead said:
but he isn't black though

its clear from his photos
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Hmm why does this feel familiar...

EBYRbA1X4AE_GsL

The new era of Weisman politics has begun, when legitimate critique is not enough we pull out the shades-of-black race test kit.
 
Powdered Egg

Powdered Egg

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
17,070
Everytime Shaun is brought up, some posters can't help but regurgitate Alt-Right talking points about him smh.

Anyway Shaun is a pastor, all pastors are hustlers/grifters. The thing with Shaun, a lot gets muddied because he has so many bad faith actors after him. The Right's nonsense goes without saying but some activists come off as jealous of his fame.

My biggest red flag with him, which Deepwater pointed out, is he comes off as spreading himself thin by starting a new project/organization(s) every year and asking for funds. Naming his new publication The North Star seemed cocky too. Those are some big shoes to fill with that name and we don't even know whether he'll still have it running in two years. I also wasn't feeling his run this year of going to bat for the rights of sex offenders. He seems a lil all over the place at times though I consider him a net positive on bringing attention to things and I like his identification bounties on open racists.
 
Westbahnhof

Westbahnhof

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
10,104
Austria
I don't know the guy at all (though I'm sure I've read some of his tweets before), but this thread makes him seem pretty suspicious.
Stuff like the summit tweet and how some of the other (seemingly more informed, like Powdered Egg) posters talk about him.. Eh.
 
Trafalgar Law

Trafalgar Law

Member
Nov 6, 2017
4,683
and again
audit reports are supposed to take time, with the amount of money that's been raised, it would be fishy if the audit reports came out fast
 

ahoyle

Member
Feb 16, 2018
537
I agree with others that he is probably a net positive. I just have never understood why he has to always say he never takes a penny. If he raised 30 million and had a 10% expense fee to run the organization, thats amazing for a charity. 25% is good.

So why not say yeah, our expense ratio is x, I have to pay my staff and myself. Who would balk at that? The issue is he always states he takes nothing.
 
Deepwater

Deepwater

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,349
Powdered Egg said:
Who are some of the better on-the-ground folks to follow?
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When I said on-the-ground, I meant those who got famous/got an online following from being on the ground at Ferguson. Deray, Netta, KidNoble, MsPackyetti, awkward duck, brown blaze, Zellie Imani, etc etc.

Not to say all of those people are perfect in their own activism, cause some of them don't even like each other, but it says something they can all agree on SK being a scammer.

What you were probably looking for are grassroots activists in general and I think @prisonculture is a great follow in the prison abolition space. I don't follow many other people known for doing the organizing work with a principled radical praxis. They're out there for sure but I just don't happen to follow them or can easily recall them at this time
 
Jag

Jag

Member
Oct 26, 2017
11,669
Good article from DeRay.

On Shaun King

We never aim to replicate the power dynamic of the system we are up against — a system that embraces a devious lack of transparency, willingly sacrifices the vulnerable to protect itself, and replaces truth with convenient lies. Yet Shaun King has done just that.
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It is important to note that Shaun's journalism has done some good by bringing attention to stories that may have gone under-reported or overlooked. But the person who paints your house before he steals your car has still committed theft.
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Ouch
 
Greg NYC3

Greg NYC3

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Oct 26, 2017
12,467
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I stopped following him during the 2016 election when he started posting some questionable "both sides are the same" tweets and other stuff trashing Hillary's record on mass incarceration.

Not that he was wrong about Hillary's past deeds but I expect my black activists to recognize the not-at-all-subtle difference between a white supremacist and a neo-liberal.
 
Akita One

Akita One

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Oct 30, 2017
4,626
Jag said:
Good article from DeRay.

On Shaun King





Ouch
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This is good nuance. He can be both a good voice for social-political issues, and someone that uses that to obtain money.

If you click on some of the tweets in this thread, and read about the people saying these things and what they represent...if you think King is being "picked on" or set up because of his politics, then you are no less delusional than the average Trump voter.
 

FPX

One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
2,273
Thought he was cool on twitter, until one specific incident. A Sikh man was assaulted when walking down his street by a man shouting racist shit. King retweeted the story, tweeted a bunch about it...Then deleted all mention of the incident from his twitter after it was reported that the assailant wasn't white.

For a second I thought it was cool that us brown people had big names in our corner. Turns out he thinks justice is selective.

EDIT: This was the incident I'm pretty sure. Hadn't realized it happened a year and a bit ago.
 
Barzul

Barzul

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,965
Just finished Deray's article, super detailed and super convincing. Unfollowed Shaun King, the I thought he was useful for signal boosting some police violence incidents but going off that article some of stuff he tweets out doesn't even contain accurate information like the officer he accused of rape. Yes that's a nope cause shit like that does more overall damage to the cause.
 
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