Ben & Jerry's
Ben & Jerry's is a Vermont company that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet. It was founded in 1978 in Burlington, Vermont, and in April 2000, Ben & Jerry's sold the company to Anglo-Dutch multinational food giant Unilever. Unilever said it hoped to carry on the tradition of engaging "in these critical, global economic and social missions". Although the founders' names are still attached to the product, they do not hold any board or management position and are not involved in day-to-day management of the company. Today it operates globally as a fully owned subsidiary of Unilever. Its present-day headquarters is in South Burlington, Vermont, with its main factory in Waterbury, Vermont.
Contents
Issues Ben & Jerry's Support
The Brand is committed to tackle issues that they care about, such as:
- Justice ReMix'd (criminal justice and fairness issue),
- Democracy
- Support GMO Labelling (Ben & Jerry's has convert to non-GMO or non-genetically modified organism in 2014 when they completed the transition of all plant-based ingredients in all* of their ice cream flavors to non-GMO).
- Fairtrade
- LGBT Equality
- Get The Dough Out of Politics (a movement of citizens taking action to protect nation elections from the flood of money from corporations, SuperPACs, and other deep pockets).
- Peace Building
- rBGH (In 1989, Ben & Jerry’s came out in opposition to the use of recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), a genetically engineered hormone given to cows to increase their milk production).
- Refugees
- Racial Justice
Racial Justice Issue
Ben & Jerry’s has been working on issues related to race since 2016, in the aftermath of the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott by a Charlotte police officer, when it first aligned itself with the Black Lives Matter movement and encouraged customers to educate themselves or be complicit.[1] Ben & Jerry's believed that racism is still deeply embedded within systems like in schools, workplaces, the criminal justice system and hospitals, to name a few. They think that because white people occupy a disproportionate number of positions of power in society it comes at the expense of people of color. Therefore, they took a stand in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and received a massive response--mostly of overwhelming support, but also mixed with misunderstanding, sincere questions and some hatred. But the poin is that, it started a conversation.[2] They tackled this issue while partnering with organization like Color of Change and NAACP.
Dismantle White Supremacy
In the aftermath of George Floyd’s death and the subsequent global protests about systemic racism and police brutality against black people, where other brands posted a black square on their Instagram grid or faced a backlash from consumers over “tone deaf” watered down declarations that seemed incongruous to their past behavior, Ben & Jerry’s did not come to play. As protests entered their eighth day on 5 June, the they set the bar with a powerful statement calling on Americans to “dismantle white supremacy” and “grapple with the sins of our past”.[3]
There are four things they did in order to dismantle white supremacy,
First, they call upon President Trump, elected officials, and political parties to commit the nation to a formal process of healing and reconciliation. Instead of calling for the use of aggressive tactics on protestors, the President must take the first step by disavowing white supremacists and nationalist groups that overtly support him, and by not using his Twitter feed to promote and normalize their ideas and agendas. The world is watching America’s response.
Second, they call upon the Congress to pass H.R. 40, legislation that would create a commission to study the effects of slavery and discrimination from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies. Americans cannot move forward together as a nation until begin to grapple with the sins of the nation's past. Slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation were systems of legalized and monetized white supremacy for which generations of Black and Brown people paid an immeasurable price. That cost must be acknowledged and the privilege that accrued to some at the expense of others must be reckoned with and redressed.
Third, Ben & Jerry's support Floyd’s family’s call to create a national task force that would draft bipartisan legislation aimed at ending racial violence and increasing police accountability. We can’t continue to fund a criminal justice system that perpetuates mass incarceration while at the same time threatens the lives of a whole segment of the population.
And finally, they call on the Department of Justice to reinvigorate its Civil Rights Division as a staunch defender of the rights of Black and Brown people. The DOJ must also reinstate policies rolled back under the Trump Administration, such as consent decrees to curb police abuses.[4]
Podcast
On September 15, 2020, Ben & Jerry's are launching a podcast in partnership with Vox Media and The Who We Are Project. “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America" will take a deep look at America's lesser-known history of racial injustice and show how legally-enforced discrimination and state-sanctioned brutality continued long after slavery ended, profoundly affecting Black Americans’ ability to gain access to jobs, housing, education, and health care, or to create and accumulate wealth. The 6-episode podcast is based on the acclaimed presentation of the same name by Jeffery Robinson, ACLU deputy legal director and director of the ACLU Trone Center for Justice and Equality. It will explore a side of American history that majority of people didn’t learn about in school: a history of the people and systems that sought to justify human trafficking, slavery, and the subjugation of Black Americans long after slavery was legally outlawed. Robinson spent nine years researching his multi-media “Who We Are” presentation, which will soon be released as a documentary. The goal of “Who We Are” is to educate and encourage audiences to dismantle systemic racism.[5]
References
- ↑ Stewart, Rebecca (2020). ‘It's not a marketing exercise’: Ben & Jerry’s on dismantling white supremacy. Retrieved on January 13, 2020.
- ↑ Ben & Jerry's. Racial Justice. Retrieved on January 13, 2021.
- ↑ Steward, Rebecca (2020). ‘It's not a marketing exercise’: Ben & Jerry’s on dismantling white supremacy. Retrieved on January 13, 2021.
- ↑ Ben & Jerry's. Silence Is NOT An Option. Retrieved on January 13, 2021.
- ↑ Ben & Jerry's (2020). Introducing “Who We Are: A Chronicle Of Racism In America,” A New Podcast In Partnership With Vox Media. Retrieved on January 13, 2021.