White California couple seen calling cops on man of color stenciling #BLM on his own house wall in viral video
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: With the very strong wave of protests around the country against racial injustice and violence, it's become all the more clear that victims of racism will no longer take it in silence.
One such recent instance is of a man who posted a video of himself on Twitter being questioned by a white couple while he was stenciling 'Black Lives Matter' on the retaining wall of his own house. In an almost two minute video, the couple was questioning him whether it was his property in a condescending tone. They were seen telling him that it's alright to express one's feelings and that they don't have anything against him stenciling the words but it's not okay to do it on someone else's property.
The man asked them as to how they were so sure about him trespassing to which they responded saying that they know the owners personally. The man then asked them to call the cops if they felt that there was some funny business going on after which they appeared to back off. They also identified themselves as Lisa and Robert, before walking away from the scene while making a call to the police.
You can watch the video here:
A white couple call the police on me, a person of color, for stencilling a #BLM chalk message on my own front retaining wall. “Karen” lies and says she knows that I don’t live in my own house, because she knows the person who lives here. #blacklivesmatter pic.twitter.com/rOpHvKVwgP
— Jaimetoons (@jaimetoons) June 12, 2020
After the incident, the man took to Twitter to voice his concerns against the couple. He posted the video of his ordeal on his page along with the tweet, "A white couple calls the police on me, a person of color, for stenciling a #BLM chalk message on my own front retaining wall. 'Karen' lies and says she knows that I don’t live in my own house, because she knows the person who lives here. #blacklivesmatter". After he posted the video, a lot of people who saw it helped identify the woman in the video. Turns out, she is Lisa C Alexander, the owner of Laface Skincare.
"Her name is Lisa Alexander. She’s the owner of La Face products and they @birchbox uses this in their monthly subscription. I don’t think they should be using products from owners that target our community," read a tweet.
Monthly beauty subscription service Birchbox houses her products and Twitter users called for them to immediately drop the brand. "@birchbox Immediately drop all products from racially-bigoted Lisa C Alexander (LA Skin Care). #blacklivesmatter" read another tweet.
People also found Lisa's brand's Facebook page and hosed it down with negative reviews.
"Stop harassing POC. Racism will not be tolerated. Yout questions to the man in the video were violent and your condescending attitude made me sick. I would NEVER buy a product from a company whose owner is RACIST! I would never buy a product from someone who targets our community. zero stars #blacklivesmatter" read one of the reviews on the page.
After the matter went viral on social media, Birchbox went live with a statement on their Facebook and Instagram pages. They stated that going forward they will be more responsible in terms of the brands they work with but the statements lack details about the status of their contract with Lisa and her company.
Followers of the page flooded their comment section with "So what about ya girl Lisa Alexander... she has been outed what’s good?" and "hope you are parting ways with Lisa Alexander and LaFace Cosmetics. Lip service does nothing when inaction says it all."