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Ben and Jerry’s has been one of the few major American companies to use their platform to speak out on various issues. The ice cream and frozen yogurt manufacturer showed its support of the Black Lives Matter movement via a statement and took a dig at the All Lives Matter slogan as well.

While Ben and Jerry’s original founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield are no longer connected to the diary product, their imprint is still felt by fans of the company. The pair used profits from ice cream sales and funneled them into a variety social causes over the course of the years.

The company’s bold stance on Black Lives Matter is timely considering the climate of the day regarding race relations. While the company did mention having respect for law enforcement, the statement made certain to hammer home that the police shootings are a byproduct of systemic racism.

From Ben and Jerry’s website:

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.

We want to be clear: we believe that saying Black lives matter is not to say that the lives of those who serve in the law enforcement community don’t. We respect and value the commitment to our communities that those in law enforcement make, and we respect the value of every one of their lives.

But we do believe that — whether Black, brown, white, or blue — our nation and our very way of life is dependent on the principle of all people being served equal justice under the law. And it’s clear, the effects of the criminal justice system are not color blind.

Read the statement in full by following this link.

Photo: Ben and Jerry’s