Ben & Jerry’s is facing calls for a boycott after the ice cream giant called on July 4 for the U.S. to return land to Native Americans.
The company said the U.S. should start by returning Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills to the Lakota Sioux tribe.
In its Independence Day message, the company said the federal holiday ignores some hard realities.
“Ah, the Fourth of July. Who doesn’t love a good parade, some tasty barbecue, and a stirring fireworks display? The only problem with all that, though, is that it can distract from an essential truth about this nation’s birth: The US was founded on stolen Indigenous land,” the company said. “This year, let’s commit to returning it.”
The message triggered an uproar, and the hashtags #boycottbenandjerrys and #GoWokeGoBroke circulated across social media, where users accused the company of running their business on “stolen” indigenous land.
“When is Ben & Jerry’s giving up their land?” Jenna Ellis, ex-attorney for former President Donald Trump, said on Twitter.
Erick Erickson, a conservative commentator, said, “Just so we’re all on the same page here, we did not ‘steal’ land from the Indians.”
“We conquered and captured it, and we’re all better off as a result of it. And, before we got here, they were killing each other and capturing each other’s land too,” Mr. Erickson said.
Some posters online related it to the blowback that Bud Light faced after it collaborated with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in the spring.
“I guess Ben and Jerry’s will find out that It’s just as easy for us to reach into the adjacent freezer for a different brand of ice cream as it is to take a step over to the next refrigerator to buy something other than Bud Light,” one user said online.
Others said if Ben & Jerry’s really cared, the company would transfer their shops to Native Americans.
Some said they were sick of the company “disrespecting” America and vowed to take their business elsewhere.
Bennett Cohen and Jerry Greenfield co-founded Ben & Jerry’s in 1978. They sold the company in 2000, and as part of the agreement, the company has maintained its voice in social causes.
It has long supported Democrats and liberal causes.
* Article From: The Washington Times