When a Credible Person Accuses You -- Possibly Falsely -- of Wrongdoing
The story of Zyahna Bryant, the University of Virginia and Morgan Bettinger
Zyahna Bryant’s social justice reputation carries weight so her words are influential and persuasive. Yet has she misused that power to unjustly hurt someone?
Margaret Flavin, writing at Gateway Pundit is just one of the media outlets that thinks that’s quite possible and questions Bryant’s character:
BLM Activist Ruined the Reputation of White University of Virginia Student Over Remark She ‘Misheard’
First, who is Ms. Bryant? Here are some headlines:
Zyahna Bryant: The girl who brought down Robert E. Lee statue
(Washington Post)
Conversation starter: Zyahna Bryant is the newest addition to “Americans Who Tell the Truth” series
(C-Ville Weekly)
8 Young Black Changemakers Working to Claim Our Democracy
(DoSomething.org)
This Teenager Made History and Pissed Off Racists Everywhere
(Vice)
Bryant is respected and applauded by many as she continues to lead while attending the University of Virginia. Yet Flavin reports that not everything Bryant has done is honorable.
“Bryant claims she heard Morgan Bettinger, at a July 2020 protest for George Floyd, refer to protestors as “speed bumps” and threatening to run them over. The alleged wording was to the effect of, ‘It’s a good thing that you are here, because otherwise these people would have been speed bumps,’ Reason magazine reported.
“Later, Bryant admitted she may have ‘misheard’ the comments,” Flavin reported.
Uh-oh. You understand how this works in America: A segment of social media users went on mob patrol to attack Bettinger, which included labeling her a “Nazi” and demanding she be expelled.
Reason magazine detailed more of the fallout.
In the year that followed, Bettinger was the subject of multiple investigations. One of them, from the UJC, would find her guilty of “threatening the health or safety” of students. As punishment, she would be expelled in abeyance—meaning that she was allowed to continue her schooling, but that a second violation of the same standard of conduct would likely result in actual expulsion. She also faced a litany of other sanctions.
While Bettinger eventually graduated from the university, she did so with a permanent mark on her record and a destroyed reputation.
But despite two separate investigations, there’s no evidence beyond Bryant’s allegations that Bettinger said protestors would make “good fucking speed bumps” or that she threatened the protesters at all.
While I will disagree that her reputation has to be destroyed forever, it was unquestionably, undeniably (no matter what a judge or jury might rule) badly damaged.
If the egregious claims against Bettinger were only partly true or patently false, then a crime of great magnitude was committed against her and if so, Bryant should be held legally, financially responsible to the degree, with punitive damages also, that Bettinger was abused.
So, who’s telling the truth: Bryant and UVA or Bettinger?
“Bettinger denied she made the threat. A student-run investigation agreed with Bettinger’s, not Bryant’s, version of what transpired,” Flavin reports.
“A separate investigation by the school’s civil rights office concluded that none of Bryant’s allegations had sufficient evidence to support them.
“Bryant’s most damning claim—that Bettinger had told protesters they would make “good fucking speed bumps”—had no corroborating witnesses, even though it allegedly occurred in front of a crowd of more than 30 people. Reason reviewed additional documents previously not made public, all of which back up the findings of the investigation.
“The only story that most UVA students heard, the one repeated over group chats, Twitter threads, and Zoom meetings with almost manic fervor, was Bryant’s,” Flavin writes.
That last point again proves the danger of social media negativity and the velocity at which it spreads ugliness based on perceptions, tribalism and confirmation bias.
There are people who say Bryant is telling the truth and that she is being discredited for doing so. They will point to previous examples of shaming or killing the messenger, so to speak.
Then are there are other people who ask, where is the credible evidence and where are the witnesses that Bettinger committed an act that led to her name and reputation being brutalized by critics and her having to endure false beliefs about her character and humanity.
I don’t claim to know the facts, evidence and thus, the objective truth. From what has been reported, different people will determine what is “true” to them.
As for the involved parties, who is being honest and forthright?
Bettinger knows. Bryant does too.
Someone is being truthful. Someone isn’t. Who is being what is unknown.
Both reputations are at stake.
Michael Toebe writes “Reputation Notes” and is the founder and specialist at Reputation Quality, a practice that serves and assists successful people and organizations in further building reputation as an asset and responsibly, ethically protecting, restoring or reconstructing it.
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