Beloved ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s released a real and thoughtful statement today on the death of George Floyd, calling on officer Derek Chauvin to be brought to justice and offering steps on how to make change.
The company says Floyd’s death was the result of “inhumane police brutality that is perpetuated by a culture of white supremacy” and says that the officers who watched as he was killed “stole him from his family and his friends, his church and his community, and from his own future.”
They mapped out four ways to make change, starting with calling on Trump to “disavow white supremacists and nationalist groups that overly support him.” They then call on Congress to pass H.R. 40, a legislation that would create a commission to study the effects of slavery and discrimination from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies because “we cannot move forward together as a nation until we begin to grapple with the sins of our past.”
The murder of George Floyd was the result of inhumane police brutality that is perpetuated by a culture of white supremacy. https://t.co/YppGJKHkyN pic.twitter.com/YABzgQMf69
— Ben & Jerry's (@benandjerrys) June 2, 2020
Thirdly, Ben & Jerry’s is supporting Floyd’s family’s call to create a national task force that would create legislation aimed at ending racial violence and increasing police accountability.
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.”
“Unless and until white America is willing to collectively acknowledge its privilege, take responsibility for its past and the impact it has on the present, and commit to creating a future steeped in justice, the list of names that George Floyd has been added to will never end,” the company added. “We have to use this moment to accelerate our nation’s long journey towards justice and a more perfect union.”
