Samaria Rice, the mother of Tamir Rice, went public on Instagram with a statement that heavily criticized activist Shaun King for publicizing a private conversation they had about the amount of money he raised for her following her son’s death. Tamir was killed at the age of 12 at the hands of police in 2014 when a police officer immediately fired shots at him for carrying a replica toy gun.
King runs and writes for a journalism blog called “The North Star with Shaun King” and published a record of a conversation he had with Samaria on Tuesday that was since taken down. In the piece, he emphasized the amount of fundraising he did for Samaria in the wake of Tamir’s death, but since the post’s removal, the sole remains of the piece is a podcast episode of the same topic with a dead link to the episode. Samaria responded to the removed-published piece Tuesday on Instagram, highlighting some very choice words for the outspoken activist, as well as some previously-iterated concerns about King.
In the statement, she questioned why King felt the need to go public with the conversation they had, remarking that it was uncomfortable and toxic to have. She also asserted that she never gave him permission to raise money for Tamir and that his actions following Tamir’s death and other killings of black individuals at the hands of police are performative and capitalize on the hurt of grieving families, while he himself, is a white man posing to be a black man.
She wrote,
“Why do you think it’s so important to tell folks we had a conversation? Well we talked and everything that was said was very toxic and uncomfortable for me to hear that you raised additional money and then say you did not want to bother me. Personally, I don’t understand how you sleep at night. I never gave you permission to raise nothing. Along with the United States, you robbed me for the death of my son.
You gave me a cop and donut conversation. All lies Shaun, please stop thinking we on the same page. As a white man acting black, you are [an] imposter that cannot be trusted.”
She concluded her statement: “Tamir human rights was violated, why would you ever make it about you? You are a selfish self-centered person and god will deal with you white man.”
Samaria has called out other activists in the past, criticizing and accusing Tamika Mallory of clout chasing in March for helping curate Lil Baby’s Grammys performance. She ended her statement by questioning King’s motives in making the conversation about himself and his efforts while she’s still grieving and fighting for the Department of Justice to reopen Tamir’s case.
You can read the full statement below.