Shaun King is being lambasted in the streets of social media after he is accused of trying to use the death of Chadwick Boseman to sell his book, “Make Change.”
In an email newsletter, Shaun wrote:
Hello My Friend,
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.
Over the past 6 years of the Black Lives Matter Movement I have traveled to 47 states – teaching, organizing, learning, and leading. And for all 6 years, everywhere I go, people ask me, “Shaun, how do I actually use my life, my skills, my time, my energy to impact and change the world?”
My book, MAKE CHANGE, is a 272 page answer to that question….
See the screen shots of the promotional email below:
Shaun King and his activism, motives, and behavior have been questionable to many people for a very long time.
As the world grieves the loss of a great man and a hero, this email has sparked a resounding call for people to divest from Shaun.
Peep the tweets below:
Shaun King responded to the accusation of using Chadwick’s death to sell his book in a post on his Instagram page.
The Internet is a shameful place. Saw people saying I am using the death of Chadwick to sell books. I’m literally not. And would never do that.
?First, I don’t make a dime off of the sales of the book. My only motivation to tell people about it is because I believe in the message and see how much it’s helping people.
?Secondly, in the email that was scheduled to go out today, which, was written before Chadwick died, I actually added some thoughts about Chadwick TO BE SENSITIVE, not the opposite. Don’t regret it even a little bit. These emails go out to hundreds of thousands of people that have opted into my email list for encouragement.
Anyway, people LOVE to lie about me. They are literally obsessed with me. It’s the strangest thing. I’m going to keep on pushing for good. They can talk. We will work.
See the original post below:
What are your thoughts on this? Do you rock with Shaun King or nah?
What a miserable excuse for what is supposed to be a human being.
I read it exactly as he explained: he led with mentions of Chadwick Boseman, then continued onto BLM to pitch his book.
Not really condolences, as I read it. Not even necessary. Maybe should have expressed condolences separately; perhaps too lazy to do so. But wouldn’t work to sell books because it was a non-sequitur: one had nothing to do with the other.
Bottom line: poor communication, from someone who should know better.