Ben & Jerry’s has officially weighed in one of America’s most contentious movements: Black Lives Matter.
On Thursday, the ice cream maker sent out a Tweet proclaiming solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
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“Black Lives Matter. Choosing to be silent in the face of such injustice is not an option.”
The Tweet, which has been liked over 30,000 times, was accompanied by a lengthy statement on systemic and institutionalized racism and called for others to join their cause by not standing idly by and to engage in meaningful action.
“We’ve come to understand that to be silent about the violence and threats to the lives and well-being of Black people is to be complicit in that violence and those threats,” the statement said.
The statement also specifically references the recent police officer shooting death of an African-American man in Charlotte that threatened police officers with a gun, and links to a separate landing page on the company’s website titled “7 Ways We Know Systemic Racism Is Real.”
They went on to say:
“We want to be clear: we believe that saying Black lives matter is not to say that the lives of those who serve in the law enforcement community don’t. We respect and value the commitment to our communities that those in law enforcement make, and we respect the value of every one of their lives.
But we do believe that — whether Black, brown, white, or blue — our nation and our very way of life is dependent on the principle of all people being served equal justice under the law. And it’s clear, the effects of the criminal justice system are not color blind.
We do not place the blame for this on individual officers. Rather, we believe it is due to the systemic racism built into the fabric of our institutions at every level, disadvantaging and discriminating against people of color in ways that go beyond individual intent to discriminate. For this reason, we are not pointing fingers at individuals; we are instead urging us to come together to better our society and institutions so that we may finally fulfill the founding promise of this country: to be a country with dignity and justice for all.
All lives do matter. But all lives will not matter until Black lives matter.”
