Ben & Jerry’s has faced the inevitable backlash that comes with declaring that Black Lives Matter in a public forum (2016 fever: catch it!) and now Blue Lives Matter is making its own declaration: Vermont’s most famous ice cream is not welcome in their freezers.
Blue Lives Matter, a protest group that claims to speak for the rights and beliefs of police officers, has issued a statement slamming Ben & Jerry’s for not reflecting “American values.” (Or this group’s take on “American values.”)
“Black Lives Matter is not a civil rights group,” reads the Blue Lives Matter statement. “Most people have their own personal beliefs about what Black Lives Matter means to them. They think that their personal definition for Black Lives Matter is what the organized BLM groups stand for; this is not the case. While we believe that other companies were misguided, Ben & Jerry’s campaign is dangerous.”
The group claims that suggesting that police have treated African-Americans unfairly is “dangerous.” The argument the group is presenting is that by supporting Black Lives Matter, Ben & Jerry’s is encouraging violence against the police. For reference, here’s what Ben & Jerry’s said about their support of Black Lives Matter:
“It’s been hard to watch the list of unarmed Black Americans killed by law enforcement officers grow longer and longer. We understand that numerous Black Americans and white Americans have profoundly different experiences and outcomes with law enforcement and the criminal justice system. That’s why it’s become clear to us at Ben & Jerry’s that we have a moral obligation to take a stand now for justice and for Black lives…
Black lives matter. They matter because they are children, brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers. 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.”
Blue Lives Matter finds the decision of an ice cream company to align themselves with the call to investigate and improve the way law enforcement interacts with the African-American community to be distasteful and has received 21,000+ likes on Facebook in support of their statement. Mind you, we doubt Ben & Jerry’s will be severely rocked by this boycott. The company has never been shy about progressive causes and the Blue Lives Matter boycott of Beyoncé didn’t exactly bring the recording megastar to her knees.
And now we wait for the inevitable Donald Trump tweet...
(Via Eater)
