Best Buy and Levi Strauss are both facing a customer boycott after offering their employees counselling over Kyle Rittenhouse's not guilty verdict.
Following the news that the teenager was acquitted, the two companies sent out memos telling their employees that counselling was available, with Levi's offering sessions with a 'racial trauma specialist' to 'encourage healing.'
Best Buy meanwhile sent a memo from the company's Chief Inclusion, Diversity & Talent Officer Mark Irvin, who encouraged those affected to 'take advantage of our mental health services, including the Life Solutions counselling services.'
However, people took social media to slam the companies and their woke response to the ruling, with some threatening to boycott their stores and cancel orders.
'@BestBuy is actually offering counseling to employees for the jury getting the verdict in the Rittenhouse trial correct. They just lost a long standing customer in me,' one user wrote on Twitter.
Best Buy (stored pictured on November 26) and Levi Strauss are both facing a customer boycott after offering their employees counselling over Kyle Rittenhouse's not guilty verdict
Best Buy sent a memo (pictured) from the company's Chief Inclusion, Diversity & Talent Officer Mark Irvin, who encouraged those affected to 'take advantage of our mental health services, including the Life Solutions counselling services.'
Levi's chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer, Elizabeth Morrison (left) and Best Buy's Chief Inclusion, Diversity & Talent Officer Mark Irvin (right)
Another took aim at Levi's, writing: 'The race for most woke company marches on and I can no longer buy 501s, which I have worn for 40+ years. These idiots destroy everything.'
Another user on Twitter said they would be cancelling orders that had made with Best Buy, and claimed more would do the same.
'@BestBuy just found out about ur memo on the Rittenhouse verdict to ur employees, in response I cancelled the $2500 Macbook on order n the appt to have stereo work done on my truck $1100 n there's more like me [sic],' the person wrote.
'I will never, ever buy anything from Best Buy again. They offered counseling services to employees after Rittenhouse verdict... WTF?' another exasperated user wrote.
People took social media to slam the companies and their woke response to the ruling, with some threatening to boycott their stores and cancel orders. Pictured above: Tweets from social media users threatening to boycott the companies and their products
Rittenhouse, 18, was cleared of all charges, including first-degree intentional homicide, on November 19 after he shot dead two white men and wounded a third during Black Lives Matter protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020.
The teenager said he acted in self-defense and was fearing for his life when he was chased down the street by an angry mob who were threatening to kill him.
The polarising acquittal caused Joe Biden to say he was 'angry and concerned' and triggered a widespread liberal meltdown after Rittenhouse was painted as a white nationalist following the shootings.
After the ruling, Levi's chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer, Elizabeth Morrison, sent a letter to staff.
'With the news that Kyle Rittenhouse was not convicted in the shooting of three individuals – two of whom lost their lives – during racial justice protests last year, this is a difficult day for many,' the letter said.
Morrison offered 24-hour mental health care for those suffering the 'pain and trauma of race, identity and belief-based tragedies.'
Rittenhouse during the shootings in Kenosha in August 2020 that left two white men dead
Kyle Rittenhouse broke down and hugged one of his attorneys after he was acquitted last Friday
She added: 'To help promote safety, sharing and to encourage healing, I'll be hosting a fireside chat and Q&A with Dr. Jamila Codrington, a licensed psychologist and racial trauma specialist in early December.'
'Dr. J and I will talk about the mental and psychical impacts of back-to-back social and racial justice events and trauma coping mechanisms during our discussion.'
The California based-executive encouraged employees to use the counselling because 'resources to help [employees] impact social justice, equality and drive positive change' such as 'getting educated and informed on the issue of gun violence' and 'reaching out to your elected officials to let them know just how important common-sense gun laws are to you.'
Jamila Codrington is a New York-licensed psychologist who has appeared on various panels, claiming that 'black people have been duped into thinking we do not matter.'
Codrington appeared on the Karen Hunter radio show in January for a discussion about how 'we must decolonize our minds.'
'One of the main weapons of colonialism and white supremacy was to destroy our memory and to separate us from our wealth - our cultural wealth,' she said.
'We have been erased out of history books and forced not to speak our native tongue. And so there's so much we are able to reclaim and remember our traditional place in society - where we were prior to slavery ...
'We come from a legacy of people that our resilient, that were kings and queens, that were discoverers - we birthed civilization. And that is the first place of intervention because we have been duped into thinking that we don't matter and all of this is coming from a legacy of enslavement and we have to defy this lie of inferiority.'
A Levi's spokesman confirmed that the 'email was sent to all US employees and that the purpose of the fireside chat is accurately described in the email.'
Best Buy has been approached for comment.
Post a Comment