Beauty giant Dove is facing a Bud Light-style boycott for teaming up with controversial Black Lives Matter activist Zyanha Bryant, who was previously accused of having white students expelled for “misheard” comments.
Some once-loyal customers even posted photos of the bar of soap in a trash can after Bryant, 22, announced she was a “Dove ambassador” helping to promote “fat liberation.”
“After hearing that Dove Beauty chose Zyanha Bryant — who ruined Morgan Bettinger’s life — for their ‘fat acceptance ambassador,’ this lifelong plus-size woman and now former Dove customer threw away the last three bars of Dove products she EVER bought,” one, Carole Thorpe , tweeted Thursday night along with a bar shot in his trash can.
Even Elon Musk weighed in as outrage spread across his social media platform X, the new name for Twitter.
“A mess,” he said write along with the clip from the initial announcement of BLM activists.
Zyanha Bryant, 22, announced in a video posted to Instagram that she is partnering with Dove Beauty to promote “fat liberation.” Zyahna Bryant / Instagram
Bryant was falsely accused of trying to get white University of Virginia student Morgan Bettinger kicked off campus for comments he admitted he may have “misheard.”morgan.bettinger/Facebook
It’s just the latest backlash against controversial partnerships by big companies, notably Bud Light, which has suffered a major financial hit after teaming up with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney.
Bryant, a student activist at the University of Virginia, had accused Bettinger of referring to BLM protesters as “good speed” in the summer of 2020 – only to later admit he may have “misheard”.
He campaigned to have the white student suspended from campus, and Bettinger’s records show he faced disciplinary action for his comments, which he worried might hinder his ability to get into law school.
Greg Price, communications director for the States Freedom Caucus Network, said the decision to ignore the controversy and choose Bryant as ambassador “is what true privilege in America looks like.”
“BLM activists completely destroyed an innocent white girl’s life with false accusations of racism and got a brand deal with Dove while Morgan Bettinger got kicked out of school and now needs medication to sleep.”
Conservatives online announced they will stop using Dove products in response.@CTorpeCville / X
Lisa Roatch, a mother of two who lives in Kansas City, was among those who said the partnership was “not OK.
“As a LIFETIME — yes, you heard that right, lifetime #Dove user, you cannot hire bullies, liars, and discriminators to market your product and expect to maintain your market base.
“I will stop using your product soon,” he wrote. “Period.”
Another user X said she guessed she “bought my last bar of Dove soap,” while a third tweeted: “I’m going to have to throw away my Dove products and never buy them again!”
“I have stopped buying their products,” tweeted another. “Never again.”
Greg Price, director of communications for the States Freedom Caucus Network, said, “This is what real privilege in America looks like.” @greg_price11 / X
The Post has contacted Dove’s parent company, Unilever, for comment.
Bryant made the announcement that she was partnering with Dove as part of her Fat Free campaign late last month, posting a video to Instagram in which she said: “My belief is that we should center 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 who move through spaces and institutions in fat bodies.”
Reaction to the news of Dove’s partnership with Bryant was swift on Thursday.@WokelyCorrect / X
She captioned her video saying, “Fat liberation is something we should all be talking about … Tell us what Fat Liberation means to you using the hashtag #SizeFreedom and tagging @dove to share your story.”
The company has yet to publicly comment on the controversy surrounding the hiring of Bryant, who allegedly took revenge on Bettinger’s fellow students beginning in the summer of 2020 amid ongoing police brutality protests.
Bryant is a community organizer and student activist studying at the University of Virginia.zysaidso/Instagram
Bettinger accidentally drove down a street in Charlottesville, Va., where several Black Lives Matter protesters were demonstrating.
He told Reason magazine he saw a garbage truck blocking part of the road, but because the road was not completely blocked, he continued driving.
When he realized the road was actually blocked from traffic, Bettinger said, he decided to park his car and see what was going on.
As he passed, Bettinger said, the truck driver started talking to him, and the two had a brief conversation.
Lisa Roatch, a mother of two who lives in Kansas City, tweeted, “This is not OK,” continuing to call Bryant a “bully.” @lisa_roatch / X
Bettinger said he recalled telling the truck driver, “It’s a good thing you’re here because otherwise this guy would have crashed,” trying to praise his efforts to block traffic.
The driver later confirmed Bettinger’s statement to local police.
But Bryant overheard part of the conversation and tweeted that Bettinger said protesters “will make a ‘good run'” along with a video showing Bettinger backing down the street in his car while Bryant and several other protesters followed.
“He then called the police and started crying, saying we attacked him,” Bryant claimed.
Bettinger drove the wrong way down a street in Charlottesville, Va., where several Black Lives Matter protesters demonstrated in July 2020. WUVA NEWS
The tweet was quickly shared more than a thousand times, and internet researchers soon identified the driver as Bettinger.
The fact that he has pro-police social media posts, and that his late father worked as a police officer, seems to have upset people even more, according to the Daily Mail.
Just a day later, Bryant began demanding that school administrators fire Bettinger.
“Email this UVA dean now to demand that Morgan face consequences for his actions and that UVA stop graduating racists,” he tweeted.
Bryant himself filed a complaint with the University’s Judicial Committee, a student-run disciplinary system, alleging Bettinger had threatened the health and safety of students.
It found Bettinger guilty of making legitimate threats against protesters, despite not being able to prove Bryant’s claims about his intent.
Jurors ruled that even saying the word in a harmless way during a protest was punishable, according to documents obtained by Reason magazine.
Bryant also filed a complaint with the school’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights, in which she claims Bettinger repeated the statement five times and discriminated against her because of her race.
The EOCR office found that three of the five charges could not be supported, and the report found that Bryant most likely did not hear Bettinger’s comments firsthand after no witnesses could corroborate his version of events.
The fact that he has social media posts in support of the police, and that his late father worked as a police officer, seems to have upset people even more, according to reports.morgan.bettinger/Facebook
Bettinger eventually graduated from UVA but with the marks remaining on his record, Reason reported, likely hindering his chances of getting into the law school of his dreams.
“This whole situation has had a huge impact on my life,” he told Reason magazine. “The university never has to answer for what they have done.”
Bettinger is said to be considering bringing a lawsuit against school officials, seeking to clear his record.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
