I was late-night doomscrolling and came across some tweets by Ashley Ray, a TV writer, comedian, and host of the TV, I Say podcast about activist Shaun King allegedly pulling a fast one on his followers (againâŠ).
For those unfamiliar with Shaun Kingâ or worse, familiar with and still sharing his contentâ definitely look into his horrendously bad track record of scamming.
If youâre a reader: check out this Daily Beast article. As Kali Holloway wrote, King has âlong-standing accusationsâprimarily lodged by black women and queer folks, nearly all of whom are his former co-organizers, colleagues, employees, and supportersâthat King has inflated, mismanaged, or failed to account for funds heâs raised for various social-justice causes.â
If youâre more into podcasts: Tune into the Scam Queenâs podcast where host Laci Mosley interviews Ashley Ray about Shaun King
TL;DR: Shaun Kingâs not a good dude, donât repost his content. Instead, amplify true Black activists and authorsâ some suggestions can be in the Scam Queenâs episode description and in this Motherly list here!
Okay! So, now that youâre caught up on the history of Shaunâs scams, back to Ashleyâs Twitter thread:
As Ashley mentions, Shaun launched A Real One, his apparel line, back in September of last year. which includes $65 t-shirts and $165 hoodies (some with Shaunâs face on them). The responses were⊠skeptical.
Oh No They Didnât! also called A Real One Out for using an uncredited image in their promo materialsâ from a vendor they apparently werenât actually associated with.
Nowâ eight months after the clothing line launch, while the website is still live and accepting orders, the A Real Oneâs Instagram hasnât been updated since September 27th of last year when there was a video posted of one of the vendors âworking around the clockâ on the shirts.
And based on the amount of comments on the video and the other posts on the Instagram account, almost no one has received their orders. Sounds like a story weâve heard before⊠ahemâ The CEH.
Comments on these posts include:
âi see @shaunking left this brand in 2021 with what was left of his careerâ
âIâve ordered mine bAck in October Iâm YET to receive it âŠ.Iâve sent msgs to you with no reply @arealone @shaunkingâ
âOrder 3710. No one is emailing back. Ordered in Dec. Still hasnât shipped. Can anyone help?â
âhow do I get an update on my order? it never shipped and nobody is responding to any of my emails.â
Unsurprisingly because Ashley did that interview about Shaun King on the Scam Goddess podcast (a GREAT podcast to throw into your rotation if youâre a scamdal fan), sheâd been blocked from Shaun Kingâs and A Real Oneâs Instagramâ which seems to be Shaunâs MO with folks that critique him.
Ashley Ray also tweeted Broken Traditionsâ video which lays out the proof it seems unlikely his clothing brand is legit.
Weâve reached out to Shaun King and the Philadelphia clothing vendor he mentioned working with for comment and will update this article if we hear back⊠but weâre also not holding our breath.