Toy Company CEO Deletes Posts on Black Lives Matter

He called influencer 'a disgrace to black people'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 24, 2020 5:40 PM CDT
Toy Company CEO Deletes Posts on Black Lives Matter
MGA chief executive Isaac Larian, left, leaves federal court in Santa Ana, Calif., in 2011 after a victory over Mattel Inc.   (AP Photo/Christine Cotter, File)

A billionaire toy company CEO has deleted his Twitter account after a post in which he called an African American artist "a disgrace to black people" and the Black Lives Matter movement. Amina Mucciolo accused MGA Entertainment, which makes Bratz and LOL Surprise dolls, of copying her look for their "Rainbow Raver" doll, BuzzFeed reports. In posts shared with her 300,000 followers on Instagram, she said the company had "misappropriated her likeness," including an "exact replica" of a hairstyle she had months before the doll was released. In now-deleted tweets, CEO Isaac Larian called Mucciolo a "liar and a extortinist (sic) and fraud." "You are Disgrace to black people and the BLM cause," he wrote.

Larian later issued an apology, saying he had been speaking out of "frustration" because she was "attacking the products and integrity of people I care deeply about." He said that the Rainbow Raver doll was created by a black artist based on "festival styles" and that the development process began long before Mucciolo had the hairstyle. Larian has also deleted a widely criticized post about Black Lives Matter from LinkedIn, Bloomberg reports. He said he condemns police brutality and fully agrees with the BLM movement, "but NOT the BLM organization which is anti-Semitic." He later said he removed the post because he couldn't verify the claims about anti-Semitism. (More Isaac Larian stories.)

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