Beauty giant Dove is facing a Bud Light-style boycott for partnering with controversial Black Lives Matter activist Zyanha Bryant, who was previously accused of getting a white student expelled for “misheard” comments.
Some once-loyal customers even posted photos of bars of soap in the trash after Bryant, 22, announced she was a “Dove ambassador” helping to promote “fat release.”
“After learning that Dove Beauty chose Zyanha Bryant, who ruined Morgan Bettinger’s life, as its ‘fat acceptance ambassador,’ THIS lifelong grande dame and now former Dove customer threw out the last three bars of Dove products I would NEVER buy,” said one. Carole Thorpe tweeted Thursday night. along with a photo of the bars in their trash.
Even Elon Musk weighed in as outrage spread across his social media platform X, Twitter’s new name.
“It’s in bad shape,” he said. he wrote next to a clip from the BLM activist’s initial announcement.
Zyanha Bryant, 22, announced in a video posted to Instagram that she was partnering with Dove Beauty to promote “fat release.” Zyahna Bryant/Instagram
Bryant is accused of wrongfully attempting to have Morgan Bettinger, a white University of Virginia student, expelled from campus for comments she admits she may have “misheard.”morgan.bettinger/Facebook
It’s just the latest backlash against controversial big business partnerships, particularly Bud Light, which has taken a huge financial hit after partnering with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney.
Bryant, a student activist at the University of Virginia, had accused Bettinger of referring to BLM protesters as “good obstacles” in the summer of 2020, then later admitting that he probably “heard her wrong.”
He campaigned to have the white student suspended from campus, and Bettinger’s record shows he faced disciplinary action for his comments, which he fears could hinder his ability to get into law school.
Greg Price, communications director for the State Freedom Caucus Network, said the decision to ignore that controversy and choose Bryant as ambassador “is what looks like a real privilege in the United States.”
“BLM activist completely ruined innocent white girl’s life with false accusation of racism and lands brand deal with Dove, while Morgan Bettinger was expelled from school and now needs medication to sleep.”
Online conservatives announced they would stop using Dove products in response.@CThorpeCville /X
Lisa Roatch, a mother of two who lives in Kansas City, was among those who said the partnership “is not right.
“As a lifetime #Dove user, yes you heard right, you can’t hire bullies, liars and those who discriminate to market your product and expect to keep your market base.
“I will stop using your product in a second,” he wrote. “Final point”.
Another X user said they guess they “bought my last bar of Dove soap,” while a third tweeted: “I’ll have to throw away my Dove products and never buy them again!”
“I stopped buying their products,” another person tweeted. “Never more.”
Greg Price, communications director for the State Freedom Caucus Network, said, “This is what real privilege looks like in America.” @greg_price11 /X
The Post contacted Dove’s parent company, Unilever, for comment.
Bryant made the announcement of his partnership with Dove as part of his Fat Release campaign late last month, posting a video on Instagram in which he said, “I think we should focus on the voices and experiences of the most marginalized people.” and communities at all times.”
“So when I think about what fat liberation looks like to me, I think about centering the voices of those who live and maneuver through spaces and institutions in a fat body.”
The backlash to news of Dove’s partnership with Bryant was swift on Thursday.@WokelyCorrect / X
She captioned her video saying, “Fat release is something we should all be talking about… Tell us what fat release means to you by using the hashtag #SizeFreedom and tagging @dove to share your story.”
The company has yet to publicly comment on the controversy over the hiring of Bryant, whose alleged vendetta against fellow student Bettinger began in the summer of 2020 amid ongoing protests against police brutality.
Bryant is a community organizer and student activist studying at the University of Virginia.zysaidso/Instagram
Bettinger mistakenly drove down a street in Charlottesville, Virginia, where some Black Lives Matter protesters were demonstrating.
She told Reason magazine that she saw a dump truck partially blocking the road, but since the street was not completely blocked, she continued driving.
When he realized the road was actually blocked to traffic, Bettinger said, he decided to park his car and see what was happening.
As she drove by, Bettinger said, the trucker began talking to her and the two had a brief conversation.
Lisa Roatch, a mother of two who lives in Kansas City, tweeted, “This is not right,” and then called Bryant a “thug.” @lisa_roatch /X
Bettinger says he remembered saying to the truck driver something like, “It’s a good thing you’re here because otherwise these people would have been obstacles,” trying to praise his efforts to block traffic.
The driver later corroborated Bettinger’s comment to local police.
But Bryant overheard part of the conversation and tweeted that Bettinger said protesters “would be ‘good obstacles’” along with a video showing Bettinger backing down the street in her car as Bryant and several other protesters follow her.
“She then called the police and started crying, saying we were attacking her,” Bryant said.
Bettinger mistakenly drove down a street in Charlottesville, Virginia, where some Black Lives Matter protesters were demonstrating in July 2020.WUVA NEWS
The tweet was quickly shared more than a thousand times and internet sleuths soon identified the driver as Bettinger.
The fact that she had pro-police posts on social media and that her late father had worked as a police officer only seemed to irritate people more, according to the Daily Mail.
Just one day later, Bryant began demanding that school administrators expel Bettinger.
“EMAIL these UVA deans now to demand that Morgan face the consequences of his actions and that UVA stop graduating racists,” he tweeted.
Bryant herself filed a complaint with the University’s Judicial Committee, a student-run disciplinary system, alleging that Bettinger had threatened the health and safety of students.
He found Bettinger guilty of making a legitimate threat against protesters, despite failing to prove Bryant’s claims about his intentions.
Jurors ruled that even saying those words harmlessly during a protest deserved punishment, according to documents obtained by Reason magazine.
Bryant also filed a complaint with the school’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights, claiming that Bettinger repeated the statement five times and had discriminated against her because of her race.
The EOCR office found that three of the five allegations could not be corroborated, and one report found that Bryant likely did not hear Bettinger’s comments firsthand after no witnesses could corroborate his version of events.
The fact that she had pro-police posts on social media and that her late father had worked as a police officer only seemed to irritate people more, according to reports.morgan.bettinger/Facebook
Bettinger eventually graduated from UVA, but with a permanent mark on his record, Reason reported, which likely hindered his chances of getting into law school like he had dreamed of.
“This whole situation has had a huge impact on my life,” he told Reason magazine. “The university has never had to answer for what its actions have done.”
Bettinger is said to be considering filing a lawsuit against school officials, seeking to have his record expunged.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn