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Are Shaun King and Tamika Mallory 'capitalizing' on BLM? Samaria Rice and Lisa Simpson ask them to 'step down'

'We don’t want or need y’all parading in the streets accumulating donations, platforms, movie deals, etc off the death of our loved ones,' the statement read

Shaun King was recently dragged on social media for offering his opinion about activist Tamika Mallory appearing in Lil Baby’s Grammys 2021 performance, which was condemned by Samaria Rice, the mother of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Black boy who was shot to death by a White police officer in 2014. King wrote a piece on the North Star titled ‘Understanding the pain, grief, and fury of Samaria Rice’, in which he has criticized the mother of the victim for calling out Mallory. However, it earned him major backlash from the Black community, who dubbed him a “clout chaser”. 

And now, Samaria and Lisa Simpson, the mother of Richard Risher, the 18-year-old Black boy who was fatally shot by three LAPD officers in 2017, have issued a joint statement demanding King, Mallory, Benjamin Crump, Lee Merritt and more to “step down” “stand back” and “stop capitalizing” from their fight for justice. 

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Samaria and Tamir’s official statement was shared by the Twitter user @_Rawilcox following a conference call. It reads, “Tamika D Mallory, Shaun King, Benjamin Crump, Lee Merritt, Patrice Cullors, Melina Abdullah and the Black Lives Matter Global Network need to step down, stand back, and stop monopolizing and capitalizing our fight for justice and human rights. We never hired them to be the representatives in the fight for justice for our dead loved ones murdered by the police. The ‘activists’ have events in our cities and have not given us anything substantial for using our ‘loved ones’ image and named on their flyers. The attorneys in our fight are also misleading the impacted families.”

“In case of Tamir Rice, it was even questionable as to whether Benajmin Crumo knew the laws in-depth, in the state of Ohio; I fired him 6-8 months into Tamir’s case. We don’t want or need y’all parading in the streets accumulating donations, platforms, movie deals, etc. off the death of our loved ones, while the families and communities are left clueless and broken. Don’t say our loved ones’ names period! That’s our truth!”, it reads further. 

Twitter says King is 'harmful' to Black People 

Samaria's statement has prompted Twitter users to react, who have similarly slammed King and other Black Lives Matter advocates for misleading the public with their representation of the Black community. One tweeted, "If I had a dollar for every time I’ve had to explain to someone why Shaun King is harmful to black people, I’d be a wealthy woman. Glad Samaria Rice said it. May he vanish for good." Another added, "I can wholeheartedly say Shaun King has never been to Cleveland. For one, we throw hands for ours and we don’t play when it comes to Samaria Rice. That was a loss the city felt." And one wrote, "I'm so over everything. Especially exploiting someone's grief that is not your own loss for white validation. I guess 2021 is the year we all eat each other alive. I truly hope we make it despite all of this. Thank you for your righteous rage, Samaria Rice."