'Black Lives Matter' Shaun King -- Don't Paint Him as a Rachel Dolezal ... Wife Jumps to Defense

Shaun now says the white man listed on his birth certificate is not his biological father. He says he'd been told from a young age that his "actual biological father is a light-skinned black man."

He says he doesn't want to say anything more about it out of respect for his mother.

Shaun King isn't faking anything ... no fake hairstyles, no fake tanning -- in other words, he's not at all like Rachel Dolezal, according to the "Black Lives Matter" activist's wife.

Rai King posted a lengthy and passionate defense of her husband in the wake of a conservative blog's allegation he's lied about his ethnicity. She said, "What's white about him is white, and what's Black about him is Black and always has been from the time he was a child."

She also addressed claims Shaun's father is white, instead of African-American ... as Shaun has said in the past, but added ... her husband won't be doing any tell-all interviews anytime soon.

"It's his story to tell. On his own terms. When he's ready to tell it. Just know this, there is nothing fake about Shaun King."