Meet Dante King
Mission
Dante D. King's work is grounded in a single conviction: that the honest examination of American history — its laws, its institutions, its deliberate construction of racial hierarchy — is not a political act. It is a moral one, and an educational imperative.
Through scholarship, curriculum, litigation support, and professional development, King works to establish what the historical record has always made clear: that racism in America is not the product of ignorance or individual prejudice, but a legally embedded, institutionally perpetuated system of anti-Blackness — one that has shaped every domain of American life from the colonial period to the present. Understanding how this system was built is the precondition for understanding how it can be dismantled.
His mission is to educate without compromise, consult with precision, and equip educators, institutions, healthcare systems, and legal advocates with the historical foundation, analytical frameworks, and practical tools they need to do the same. Truth, King believes, does not require permission. It requires preparation.
Dante's Story
Bio
Dante D. King is a native of San Francisco, California — a graduate of Castlemont High School in Oakland and a product of East Bay public schools — whose scholarship, leadership, and public service have been shaped by a lifelong commitment to truth-telling about race, power, and American institutional history.
He is the author of three books: The Psychopathy of Whiteness: The Epigenetics of Anti-Blackness, Malignant Narcissism, and Collective Diabolical Antisocial Personality Disorder, which debuted as a #1 Amazon New Release; Diagnosing Whiteness & Anti-Blackness: White Psychopathology, Collective Psychosis, and Trauma in America (2025), which debuted as a #1 Amazon New Release and received multiple BookFest Awards in Nonfiction — Politics & Government, History & Theory, and Human Rights & Political Movements; The 400-Year Holocaust: White America's Legal, Psychopathic, and Sociopathic Black Genocide and the Revolt Against Critical Race Theory (2022), winner of the 2022 BookFest Award in Non-Fiction History; and The 400-Year Holocaust Toolkit and Workbook (2023). Blackademics — the nonprofit organization he founded — co-produced a ten-part episodic docuseries to accompany Diagnosing Whiteness & Anti-Blackness, available at diagnosingwhitenessandantiblackness.com/watch.
His academic disciplines span Afro-Realism, Critical Race Studies, African American Studies, Whiteness Studies, anti-Blackness, and the legal and institutional history of race in colonial and post-colonial America. His scholarship argues that racism must be understood not as ignorance or social deviance, but as a psychopathic and sociopathic condition embedded into the legal, medical, economic, and cultural architecture of American life — a framework that has shaped professional development programs at Mayo Clinic, UCSF, the National Education Association, and school districts and public institutions nationwide.
"Until this country acknowledges that its entire identity is predicated on a lie, it will never make any progress. The truth disrupts. It causes pain and discomfort. We must extricate the truth from where it has been buried."
King serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medical Education at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, and previously served as guest faculty at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine (2020–2025), where he developed and taught Understanding the Roots of Racism and Bias: Anti-Blackness and Its Links to Whiteness, White Racism, Privilege, and Power — a course carrying 16.25 CME/CAMFT/CLE credits. He co-developed Developing Antiracism Leadership Competencies to Achieve Inclusive Practices and Health Equity with Dr. Robin DiAngelo (White Fragility; Nice Racism) — an AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ course delivered at Mayo Clinic — and has lectured at Stanford University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, the American Psychiatric Association, and multiple colleges and universities across the country.
He is an expert legal scholar and witness on matters of race, racism, and the California Racial Justice Act, having served the Los Angeles County, San Francisco County, and Orange County Public Defenders' Offices. He was recently instrumental in codifying new California law in People v. Finley (2023).
King's governmental career spanned nearly a decade of senior public service with the City and County of San Francisco. As Deputy Director of the Office of Health Equity at the San Francisco Department of Public Health — one of the largest public health agencies in the country, with more than 8,000 employees — he led the development and implementation of the department's Racial Equity Action Plan, the first-ever Antiracism and Racial Equity Leaders Fellowship (a 12-week cohort for more than 50 executive and senior leaders), and groundbreaking policies including the Antiracism Recruitment and Hiring Policy and Healing Time Off. As Director of Race, Equity, and Inclusion at SFMTA (6,000+ employees), he designed the agency's first-ever Racial Equity Action Plan. In 2018, he partnered with the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to develop and enact the City's Racial Equity Ordinance — the legislation that created San Francisco's first-ever citywide Office of Racial Equity in 2019. In his role as Senior Human Resources Manager at the City and County of San Francisco, he developed Creating an Inclusive Environment: An Introduction to Implicit Bias, a citywide training received by more than 20,000 city employees.
In January 2025, King became the target of a coordinated campaign by right-wing organizations — including Young America's Foundation, Campus Reform, The Daily Wire, and Fox News — seeking to suppress racial justice education in academic institutions. As a result of this targeted harassment, he has faced violent threats, including death threats. He continues his work undeterred, understanding that the attempt to silence truth-telling is itself a confirmation of its necessity.
King is the Founder and Executive Director of Blackademics, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to educating educators, lawyers, healthcare professionals, and the broader public about the legacy and persistence of White supremacy and anti-Blackness in America. He is also Founder of King of Kings Consulting, LLC, which partners with school districts, public institutions, health systems, and universities on leadership development, equity-centered organizational transformation, and public sector workforce development.
He holds a Master of Science in Adult Learning, Multiple Intelligence Theory, and Equity, and a Bachelor of Arts in African American Studies, both from California State University, East Bay. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humanitarianism from the School of the Great Commission in 2024. He is a member of the American Association of University Professors, the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, the National Association for Multicultural Education, and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.
Honors & Awards
Amongst an array of many awards and recognition, in spring 2024, King was awarded the Higher Education Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leadership Award, by The National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE). In summer of 2022, Dante was awarded 1st Place, by The Bookfest Awards, in the genre of Non-Fiction History for penning The 400-Year Holocaust. King also received the Dr. Huey P. Newton Trailblazer and Legacy Award, presented by B.H. Brilliant Minds, Inc., for his consistent leadership and advocacy on behalf of Black communities in Oakland and San Francisco, California, and abroad. In fall 2023, King was awarded the Carter Godwin Woodson Service Award by the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) for a commitment to correcting "deficiencies in American history where African American History and the history of other cultures is misrepresented, distorted, or ignored."
Education
King holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in African American Studies, and a Master of Science in Education, from California State University, East Bay. He possesses a Human Resources Management certification through San Francisco State University. King started doctoral work in Educational Leadership and Social Justice, with principal focuses in challenging White supremacy and anti-blackness, and their cumulative effects on Black people, White people, and all participants in American culture.
In spring 2024, King was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in Humanitarianism from the School of the Great Commission (SGC). The School of the Great Commission is accredited by the International Association for Quality Assurance in Pre-Tertiary and Higher Education, American Accrediting Association of Theological Institutions, World-Wide Accreditation of Christian Educational Institutions, and Southeastern Association of Bible Colleges.
Community Outreach and Volunteer Efforts
King is the Executive Director of Blackademics: Addressing Anti-Blackness Around the World, INC. Blackademics is an educational and charitable non-profit, focused on educating students and families across race, about the legacy and persistence of White supremacy and Anti-Blackness in America, as well as worldwide. He is a board member for the B.H. Brilliant Minds Project, LLC, a local Bay Area, California, non-profit and charitable agency focused on bringing healing to African American people, through community service and outreach. He has served as a board member for the B.H. Brilliant Minds Project, LLC for over 15 years, while also serving the agency through education and book donations.
Previously, King served as a board member for the Sexual Minority Alliance of Alameda County (SMAAC) Youth Center. During his tenure as a board member for more than four years, Kingfocused SMAAC's mission and goal on serving underserved, unhoused, and unsheltered Black LGBTQ+ youth. In addition, King mentored and tutored many youths during his time at SMAAC. King has also helped organizations like AMASSI and the AIDS Project of the East Bay with their sexual health outreach efforts.
While in high school, King joined the AmeriCorps program created by President Bill Clinton. During his time with AmeriCorps, King was employed at the East Lake YMCA in East Oakland, where he worked as a youth outreach worker, mentor, and tutor under Margaret Wimberly's supervision.
Shortly after high school, King became involved with a non-profit which was housed at the Allen Temple Church in East Oakland. This opportunity allowed him to tutor at his old elementary school, Daniel Webster. These experiences were crucial in shaping King's future as a leader, educator, and public servant.
King previously attended the Center of Hope Community Church, where he helped people from the unsheltered and unhoused community. This experience led King to collaborate with friends and family in proactively purchasing food, water, and toiletries to deliver directly to people throughout these communities.
In 2016, King became involved with The Village, a prison outreach program that catered to helping Black men in prison. King began reaching out and connecting with prison inmates. His goal was to provide guidance, aid, and comfort. King became deeply involved with these efforts, and has donated, to date, more than $100k in resources to over 15 men. Donations have included loading monies onto JPay and Connect Network accounts to ensure inmates can write letters to, as well as call their families; ordering thousands of dollars of Secure Paks; as well as driving to see and visit inmates in prison both in northern and southern California. Additionally, King has written several early release letters to support early prison releases for reformed prison inmates. King has been successful in helping two men access early parole releases.
King's drive and ambition, which aim to authentically uplift and help others, have fueled his long history of public service, allowing him to attract and sustain many meaningful and long-lasting relationships.
Websites and Social Media:
www.diagnosingwhitenessandantiblackness.com/watch
Social media – find me on:
Instagram – @dantedkingofficial
Twitter – @danteking2020
