TheQuartering [9/14/2023]
Dove is having a Bud Light moment.
The beauty giant has partnered with a Black Lives Matter activist to promote “fat liberation,” after she was accused of wrongfully getting a white student expelled from her university over a “misheard” 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 a video.
“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.”
But even though Bryant has been praised for her work with Black Lives Matter and getting the Robert E. Lee statue taken down in Charlottesville, she has also 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.
The incident began in July 2020, when Bettinger mistakenly drove down a street where BLM protesters had gathered.
She told Reason magazine 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.