Yesterday, I scrabbled together a quick comment on Ben & Jerry’s ignorant indigenous Independence Day tweet, but when I saw Rob Roper’s take, mine went into the digital dustbin. I liked his more, but the fates have since blessed me with news that makes for a great follow-up.
Related: Ben & Jerry’s Says, “Hold My Bud Light!”
First, here’s the dopey tweet from Vermont’s socialist millionaires.
This 4th of July, it’s high time we recognize that the US exists on stolen Indigenous land and commit to returning it. Learn more and take action now: https://t.co/45smaBmORH pic.twitter.com/a6qp7LXUAE
— Ben & Jerry’s (@benandjerrys) July 4, 2023
Rob’s headline was prescient. Unilever, which owns Ben & Jerry’s but allows Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield to head a board that sends out stupid tweets, lost two billion in market cap since, as calls for a Bud Light Level boycott of B&Js takes root.
Unilever stock lost about $2 billion in market capitalization amid calls to boycott Ben & Jerry’s ice cream after the company posted a Fourth of July message saying the United States should hand Mount Rushmore over to Native Americans.
Shares of Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch multinational company, dropped about 0.5 percent on Friday, 0.8 percent on Thursday, and 0.5 the previous day. It’s not clear if the drop was due to the calls to boycott Ben & Jerry’s, which has been owned by Unilever since 2000.
That’s a pittance for them. A hiccup. But so was Bud’s before things got serious. We will know soon enough. Ben and Jerry not only stepped in it, they did it on Independence Day with a level of ignorance typically reserved for the corporate media. They picked Mount Rushmore and the Lakota Sioux as the first land we should give back to the indigenous people. Not the land on which sits every Ben & Jerry’s, or any retailer that sells it, or even under their own homes, but Mount Rushmore.
Corporate media-level ignorance.
We’ve written about this very claim, made by the Lakota Sioux who stole the land from the Cheyenne, and they from whomever, and so on back to the original colonization of North America 16,000 give or take years ago when it was land occupied by no one up to that point but has changed hands ever since.
Regular readers will also be familiar with my scores of pieces on the notion of indigenous people in America. There were none. If you were born here, you’re no less indigenous, and if having your property taken is the only other requirement, your government has taken some and is working diligently to steal everyone’s land. That sort of government never gives back, and that’s the same team for whom Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield play.
As for an official Ben & Jerry’s boycott, game on, stop buying it. Just understand that, like Anheuser Busch, which is owned by a foreign colonialist power, Unilever is another foreign multinational. The stock price is reflective of many influences, none of which have to do with you taking your umbrage with the Birkenstock Socialists from Vermont. And if that’s not a good enough reason, do it because of their religious devotion to left-wing talking points; from #MeToo to BDS to Reverse-Racism, they’ll ape whatever hate and ignorance the DC/Media narrative mill coughs up, even on Independence Day.
They sort of hate America and the government that made their wealth possible. You can’t take that away from them, but maybe you can put enough pressure on the brand to get Unilever to disband their social justice board and any future ability to use the brand to express their dopey ideas.
They can, after all, afford to tweet as themselves.