Dove is having a Bud Light moment.
The beauty giant has teamed up with a Black Lives Matter activist to promote “fat liberation,” after she was wrongly accused of having a white student expelled from her university for a “misheard” statement.
Zyanha Bryant, a community organizer and student activist studying at the University of Virginia, made the announcement that she was a “Dove ambassador” on her Instagram page in late August, as she talked about her goal to end the stigma of being overweight.
“My belief is that we should center the voices and experiences of the most marginalized people and communities at all times,” Bryant, 22, said in a video.
“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.”
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.”
Zyanha Bryant announced on Instagram that she is partnering with Dove to support “fat liberation.” Zyahna Bryant / Instagram
But while Bryant has been praised for his work with Black Lives Matter and taking down the statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, he has also come under fire in recent months for his efforts to get a white student named Morgan Bettinger suspended from campus.
He claims Bettinger referred to BLM protesters as “good speed” in the summer of 2020 – only to later admit he may have “misheard”.
The incident began in July 2020, when Bettinger mistakenly drove down a street where BLM protesters had gathered.
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.
She says everyone should be talking about “fat liberation” — the idea of ending the stigma of being overweight. Zyahna Bryant / Instagram
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 he said the 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.
Morgan Bettinger was besieged by Black Lives Matter protesters after he pushed down the street where they were demonstrating in July 2020. WUVA NEWS
“He then called the police and started crying, saying we attacked him,” Bryant claimed.
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.
Internet sleuths soon identified the driver as Morgan Bettinger, and Bryant demanded that he be expelled from the University of Virginia.morgan.bettinger/Facebook
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.
Start your day with everything you need to know
Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.
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 proven, and the report found that Bryant most likely did not hear Bettinger’s comments firsthand after no witnesses could corroborate his version of events.
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.
Bryant continues to make a name for himself, being profiled in the Washington Post and named to Ebony’s “Power 100” list last year.zysaidso/Instagram
His attorney claims his “conviction and sentence were imposed without constitutionally adequate due process” because the school failed to retry him or provide “de novo review of the UJC’s clearly erroneous judgment,” according to the school’s newspaper, the Cavalier Daily.
Meanwhile, Bryant continues to make a name for himself, profiled in the Washington Post and named to Ebony’s “Power 100” list last year.
The Post has reached out to Dove and its parent company, Unilever, for comment.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
