Jeremiah Johnson, CEO of the Des Moines-based clothing brand Stylent, claims his landlord kicked him out of the space he and his partner had been leasing after seeing pictures of them attending a protest where looting had occurred.

The pair denied that they committed any criminal acts while joining in the demonstration over the death of the Minneapolis man. A video of Johnson’s partner Exodus Barbglor confronting his white landlord David Harkin over the eviction was posted on Twitter, where it has since been viewed more than 3.8 million times.

In the tweet accompanying the video, Johnson wrote: “We got kicked out from our business office space by our landlord cuz he saw us on the news peacefully protesting. Violating our 1st amendment rights and the lease. Please share this video! When other people protest for haircuts, it’s great! But when I protest peaceful it’s bad!!”

In the clip, Barbglor states that he was “protesting the right way” and asks Harkin why he is not OK with people rioting or those demonstrating against police brutality and racism peacefully.

The landlord replies: “I’ll just tell you flat out that if there’s something illegally going on at a place that I’m at, I don’t want to be a part of it. I think its poor judgment to be at a place where something illegal is going on, whether you’re part of it or not.”

Barbglor adds: “We didn’t think that was going to happen. We were there for a peaceful protest.”

Speaking to KCCI, Harkin denied that the eviction was linked to the men attending the protest.

“They suckered me into a racial issue, and it was not about race,” Harkin said. “I am not a racist person.”

Harkin said he had previously emailed the men on May 25 to ask them to move out, citing reasons such as slow rent payments and repeated parking in spaces reserved for another company.

In a follow-up tweet, Johnson claimed Harkin, owner of Fort Des Moines Financial Services, emailed him and his partner after they took the matter to court to say he has an issue with people who “demand rights who have never earned or done anything to deserve them…let alone respect.”

After the clip went viral, people took to social media to say that they have since purchased items from Stylent’s online store as a show of solidarity for the black-owned business. A GoFundMe page has also been set up by the business asking for help financially and to cover legal fees.

“As you all know, we’ve been kicked out from our office space because our landlord said he saw us on the news while peacefully protesting, exercising our 1st amendment right as Americans,” a description on the fundraising page reads.

“He also claimed in an email that we were protesting for ‘rights’ that we didn’t earn. There’s nothing more that we value than our human rights. Until our human rights as African Americans is valued, then we don’t value any rights created by mankind.”

Johnson and Harkin have been contacted for comment.