Toy Billionaire Deletes Post About Black Lives Matter Group
Toy Billionaire Deletes Post Slamming Black Lives Matter Group
(Bloomberg) -- Isaac Larian, the billionaire head of the company behind LOL Surprise! dolls, has deleted his Twitter account and a post on LinkedIn after calling a freelance artist a “disgrace to Black people” and saying the Black Lives Matter organization is discriminatory toward Jewish people.
The LinkedIn post, made one week ago, was deleted Tuesday after a question from Bloomberg News about a separate social-media controversy. On Thursday, Larian tweeted at Amina Mucciolo, a Black freelance artist, saying she was a “#LIAR and #Extortionist” and disgraced Black people and the Black Lives Matter movement. Mucciolo had accused Larian’s company, MGA Entertainment Inc., of copying her likeness in one of its dolls.
Larian apologized for his language and took down his Twitter account after he came under fire for his comments, while maintaining that the claims of copying Mucciolo’s likeness were without merit. “The words I used came from frustration because her actions are attacking the products and integrity of people I care deeply about. I was wrong for that,” Larian said.
Larian has long been known for his outbursts on social media, but business leaders -- and their comments about race -- are under more scrutiny than ever. A petition supporting Mucciolo’s claims has drawn more than 13,000 signatures, and some customers on social media have threatened a boycott of LOL Surprise! dolls, one of the most popular toys in the U.S. MGA also makes Bratz dolls and Little Tikes toys.
Around the same time Larian lashed out at Mucciolo on Twitter, he started a discussion on the Black Lives Matter movement and police brutality on LinkedIn.
“I fully agree with the #BLM movement (and NOT the BLM organization which is anti-Semitic) and condemn police brutality. But #Defund the #Police? #Looting? Have we all gone mad? And 1000% the looting and destroying is a NO-NO. It absolutely increases racism EVEN-THOUGH a LOT of these looters were WHITE and Hispanics, they will blame Blacks,” he wrote last week.
The company initially declined to comment on the post’s claim that the group is anti-Semitic, instead removing it. Larian later said he removed the post because he couldn’t verify the claim, and pointed to an article from lawyer Alan Dershowitz about the Black Lives Matter organization’s views toward Israel. The CEO has 30,000 connections on LinkedIn, and the post had 171 “likes” when it was taken down.
Larian also posted on LinkedIn that “haters and tabloid press” are ignoring a broader back story about Mucciolo, and posted a link to an employee’s Instagram page. The employee described herself as a “Black creative” and one of the designers of the LOL Surprise! dolls. She defended the company’s work and said Mucciolo had blocked attempts at contact.
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