Black Lives Matter leader Shaun King is castigating the media as racist for abbreviating Dallas shooter Micah X. Johnson’s middle name.
After Johnson’s identity was publicized Friday, King took to Twitter to refer to the media’s naming of Johnson as a “racist dog whistle.” (RELATED: Shaun King’s Charities Never Existed)
Disgusting to see mainstream media calling the shooter Micah X Johnson. His middle name is Xavier. Nothing more than a racist dog whistle.
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) July 8, 2016
For 50 years, mass killers have been called by their first, middle, and last names. Calling him Micah X. Johnson is a racist ploy.
— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) July 8, 2016
King is seemingly complaining that by abbreviating Johnson’s middle name (Xavier), the media is inviting comparisons to black activists like Malcolm X, who changed their birth surnames to an “X” to reject what they regarded as “slave names.”
King isn’t entirely wrong. Several tweets about Johnson’s identity leave out the period after the X, suggesting his middle name is literally X rather than Xavier.
Johnson declared that he hated white people and wanted to gun down cops as vengeance for the death of blacks at the hands of police before dying, according to Dallas police.
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