Dove partners with Zyanha Bryant, BLM activist accused of wrongly getting white UVA student, Morgan Bettinger expelled promoting fat liberation after allegations of racism, which she later conceded she may have ‘misheard’ as questions are raised.
A marriage made in potential hell? Beauty brand Dove has partnered with a Black Lives Matter activist to promote ‘fat liberation,’ despite ongoing circumspect over whether she wrongfully accusing a white UVA student of overt racism, leading to her being expelled. This despite the activist later conceding that she may have ‘misheard’ the ‘offensive’ remark.
Zyanha Bryant, a community organizer and student activist studying at the University of Virginia, made the announcement she was a ‘Dove ambassador’ on her Instagram page at the end of August, as she spoke about her goal of ending the stigma of being overweight.
‘My belief is that we should be centering the voices and the experiences of the most marginalized people and communities at all times,’ Bryant, 22, said in the video last month.
Zyahna Bryant ruined a white girl’s life over a non-existent remark
Dove just did a brand partnership with her to support “fat liberation” pic.twitter.com/7mgaOuXQco
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) September 14, 2023
Ongoing praise for activist
‘So when I think about what fat liberation looks like to me, I think about centering the voices of those who live in and who maneuver through spaces and institutions in a fat body.’
She captioned her video by 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.’
Bryant has been praised for her work with Black Lives Matter, including having the Robert E. Lee statue taken down in Charlottesville, along with being recently selected to be part of an female cohort discussing women’s issues. Nevertheless the activist has come under fire in recent months for her efforts to get a white student named Morgan Bettinger suspended from campus.
She claimed Bettinger referred to BLM protesters as ‘good speed bumps’ in the summer of 2020 — only to later admit she may have ‘misheard’ her.
But then the blemish arrived
The incident began in July 2020, when Bettinger mistakenly drove down a street where BLM protesters had gathered.
She told Reason she saw a dump truck partially blocking the road, but because the street was not completely blocked off, she continued driving.
When she realized the road was actually being blocked off from traffic, Bettinger said, she decided to park her car and see what was going on.
As she passed by, Bettinger said, the truck driver began talking to her, and the two had a brief conversation.
Bettinger says she remembered telling the truck driver something along the lines of, ‘It’s a good thing that you are here because otherwise these people would have been speed bumps,’ trying to praise his efforts to block traffic.
The driver later corroborated Bettinger’s remark to local cops.
But Bryant overheard part of the conversation and tweeted that she said the protesters ‘would make ‘good speedbumps’’ along with a video showing Bettinger backing down the street in her car while Bryant and several other protesters follow.
‘She then called the police and started crying, saying we were attacking her,’ Bryant claimed.
The tweet was quickly shared more than a thousand times, with internet sleuths soon identifying the driver as Bettinger.
Agreed, since Zyanha Bryant falsely “canceled” someone, we need to cancel Dove for supporting her (not thinking many floors can support her, never mind a bar of soap)#boycottdove
— Sanctimonious (MAGA) Voter (@truthseekertom1) September 14, 2023
Cancel culture rampant
Going against Bettinger were seemingly pro-police social media posts, along with her late father had worked as a police officer, which had egged on her detractors 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 consequences for her actions and that UVA stop graduating racists,’ she tweeted at the time.
Bryant herself filed a complaint with the University Judiciary Committee, a student-run disciplinary system, alleging Bettinger had threatened students’ health and safety.
It found Bettinger guilty of making a legitimate threat against the protesters, despite being unable to prove Bryant’s claims about her intentions.
The jurors ruled that even saying the words in a harmless manner during a protest merited punishment, according to documents obtained by Reason magazine.
Bryant also filed a complaint with the school’s Office for Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights, in which she claimed Bettinger repeated the statement five times and had discriminated against her due to her race.
Success at what cost?
The EOCR office found that three of the five accusations could not be corroborated, and a report found Bryant most likely did not hear Bettinger’s comments firsthand after no eyewitnesses were able to corroborate her version of events.
Bettinger eventually graduated from UVA but with a permanent mark on her record, Reason reported, likely hindering her chances of getting into law school as she had dreamed.
‘This whole situation has had a huge impact on my life,’ she told Reason magazine. ‘The university has never had to answer for what their actions have done.’
Bettinger is said to be considering bringing a lawsuit against school officials, seeking to get her record cleared.
Her lawyers claim her ‘conviction and punishment were effectuated without a constitutionally sufficient process’ because the school had failed to retry her or provide a ‘de novo review of the clearly erroneous judgment of the UJC,’ according to the school newspaper, the Cavalier Daily.
Just days ago Bryant was profiled in the Washington Post after being named to Ebony’s “Power 100” list last year as the black activist continues to hit her strides. But at what potential cost?
