Provocative right-wing pundit Candace Owens shares in an interview with Vanity Fair magazine her husband was discriminated against by a lefty interior designer.
According to the controversial Black Trump supporter, the interior designer sent a short but disrespectful note to her partner, and she compared his not wanting to work with him to “Jim Crow.”
The interior designer pointed out that both men are white and said his decision was based on how her husband lends voice to white supremacists.
During the interview, Owens told writer Emily Fox her husband George Farmer, an Englishman and CEO of the “free speech” right-wing social networking website Parler, asked popular interior designer David Netto to work on their home. The couple had seen how he decorated a friend’s home in Nashville and had hoped to be a client. With this hope, Farmer reached out to Netto via his website.
“My husband wrote the most polite email because he’s always polite, he’s very English. We didn’t know if we could afford a designer or anything,” Owens told the magazine.
Instead of receiving rates or an invitation to meet, Netto declined to work on their home.
Owens was shocked: not only did the creative instantly turn down the work, but he did not mince words when painting the picture of just how uninterested he was.
“Dear George, thank you for your inquiry. I’d rather get beat in the a– with a wooden plank than ever go near either of you. Kind regards, David,” Netto allegedly responded.
Outraged, Owens said, “If a white conservative male had written that email to an outspoken Black liberal, he would’ve lost everything.”
Adding, “They would’ve said it was like Jim Crow.”
Once the article was published, social media was ablaze with different opinions about the exchange. Some people dismissed Owens’ comparing Netto’s reply to the institution of Jim Crow, even if Netto’s remarks were not professional.
One person wrote, “Definitely not racism but I don’t understand why he had to be so unprofessional about it … If he didn’t want to service them, he could have just stated he’d be unable to accommodate their request and keep it pushing.”
Others simply thanked Netto for shutting the couple down.
“Well, there ya go. All money ain’t good money!” Lori Mac tweeted.
“On behalf of everyone who doesn’t want anything to do with hateful bigots, thank you, David Netto,” one critic tweeted. “They sow hate and are shocked when someone doesn’t want anything to do with them.”
In response to some of the backlash she received, Owens tweeted, “People that claim to be fighting hatred are always the most hateful bigoted people.”
One Twitter user responded to her saying, “Girl bye. You know why people hate you.”
Another wrote, “Shut up Klandace. You spread the most vile and hateful things. You deserve nothing but that in return. Thoughts and prayers though…”
Not everyone supported Netto’s actions.
One person commented, “Candace is definitely a flame thrower and engenders a lot of passion from people, but there should be distinction between parasocial interaction and real-life interaction.”
“Her and her husband were strangers to this man and he acted like they did something to him personally simply by asking to employ him,” the person continued. “Common courtesy aside, even from a business point, it was dumb how he handled it. Now he’s possibly alienated some potential clients based on this publicity and he looks more like an activist than a serious professional. It was unnecessary to draw attention like this.”
In a statement to Vanity Fair, Netto said he knew exactly who Farmer was and noted while Owens signified his declination to work with them as Jim Crow, his decision was “not a race thing.”
He said, “It’s a terrorism/amorality thing,” before explaining, “After January 6, the joke’s over.”
“People like this should expect to be recognized as complicit with something very dangerous—and I don’t mean Kanye—and expect to be told off in polite society,” Netto said, adding, “Without Parler, the Proud Boys couldn’t talk to each other, so that’s enough for me.”
“They’ll find somebody to do their house, and I’m sure it will be beautiful,” he concluded.
