It was but a couple of months ago that Rachel Dolezal, the “black” president of Spokane’s NAACP chapter, was outed as not black. Evidently, this transracialism isn’t specific to her case. Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King, who came to prominence writing about injustice in Ferguson, has been claiming to be black as well, despite it now being confirmed that he has white parentage. In a Twitter exchange with CNN’s Don Lemon, King said, “This attack isn’t about me so much, but is about derailing Black Lives Matter and the movement against police brutality.” And by “attack,” of course, he means questions about his true race. But he doubled down, saying “key facts about my biological relatives are all wrong. … [M]y family, like many of yours, is one big mess.” What’s a mess is the need to self-identify as the wrong race to make a political point.

Update: King says his mother had an affair with a black man and that he is biracial. But he sure does look like the white guy on his birth certificate…