Ben & Jerry’s is Sick and Tired of White Supremacy, Want To Defund The Police – Black Enterprise

Ben & Jerrysis standing up for Black lives, calling for the criminal justice system to be defunded and reformed.

Ice cream makers Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield believe white supremacy was the reason why 20-year-old Daunte Wright was shot and killed by a police officer in a Minneapolis suburb over the weekend, Fox News reported.

The murder of Daunte Wright is rooted in white supremacy and results from the intentional criminalization of Black and Brown communities, said Ben and Jerrys official Twitter. This system cant be reformed.

The murder of #DaunteWright is rooted in white supremacy and results from the intentional criminalization of Black and Brown communities.

This system cant be reformed.

It must be dismantled and a real system of public safety rebuilt from the ground up.#DefundThePolice

Ben & Jerrys (@benandjerrys) April 12, 2021

The decision to call out white supremacy was met with praise from activists, but there was pushback from those who disagree with its hardline position on police reform.

Never had Blue Bell ice cream. How do we make this happen?

Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) April 14, 2021

Dear aging hippies from Ben and Jerrys (Even though you sold out to Unilever a long time ago), please stick to making overpriced super sickly ice cream, not lecturing us.

Simon Lord (@MPC3675) April 14, 2021

This is not the first time Ben and Jerrys made its left-leaning politics public. The company is open about its stance on climate change, voting rights, and has collaborated with civil rights athlete Colin Kaepernick, known for taking a knee protests against racial injustice in America, to make a signature ice cream flavor, The Sun reported.

The officer who killed Wright is former police officer Kim Potter. On Wednesday, she was arrested and faces 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine on a second-degree manslaughter charge.

As BLACK ENTERPRISE previously reported, the Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, police officer handed in her resignation in a short letter to Brooklyn Center Mayor Mike Elliot Tuesday. After Potter handedin her resignation, Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon did the same.

I have loved every minute of being a police officer and serving this community to the best of my ability, but I believe it is in the best interest of the community, the department, and my fellow officers if I resign immediately, Potter wrote.

This is the third incident of a Black man being killed by an officers hand in the state in the last five years. Philando Castile, who was also fatally shotduring a traffic stopin 2016, andGeorge Floyd, who was killed last year. The police officer who killed Floyd is currently on trial, less than 10 miles from where Wright was shot.

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Ben & Jerry's is Sick and Tired of White Supremacy, Want To Defund The Police - Black Enterprise