Ben & Jerry’s announced that they were releasing a new ice cream flavor, Pecan Resist, to protest the Trump administration. They are partnering with the Women’s March, whose leaders have ties to Louis Farrakhan.
The ice cream giant’s website states that the Pecan Resist flavor consists of chocolate ice cream, pecans, walnuts, almonds and chunks of fudge.
“We can peacefully resist the Trump administration’s regressive and discriminatory policies and build a future that values inclusivity, equality, and justice for people of color, women, the LGBTQ community, refugees, and immigrants,” the website reads. “Pecan Resist supports four organizations that are working on the front lines of the peaceful resistance, building a world that supports their values.”
One of those progressive organizations is the Women’s March; the others are Color of Change, Honor the Earth and Neta.
Another section of Ben & Jerry’s website calls the Women’s March “a dramatic display of our country at its very best.”
However, Independent Journal Review (IJR) noted that the Women’s March leaders have ties to Louis Farrakhan, who recently referred to Jews as “termites.” Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt criticized Women’s March leaders Linda Sarsour, Tamika Mallory and Carmen Perez over Farrakhan in March.
“Consider that in the audience at last weekend’s conference was Tamika Mallory, one of the leaders of the Women’s March, who got a special shout-out from Farrakhan and who regularly posts laudatory pictures of him on her Instagram account — as does Carmen Perez, another leader of the March,” Greenblatt wrote. “Linda Sarsour, another March organizer, spoke and participated at a Nation of Islam event in 2015. Her most notable response to his incendiary remarks this year was a glowing post on Perez’s Facebook page to praise Farrakhan’s youthful demeanor.”
When asked by IJR about the Women’s March leaders’ ties to Farrakhan, a spokeswoman told them:
“We’re comfortable with the idea that the people and the causes we partner with may have a point of view different from our own on some issues. They can be controversial, just as we can. Linda may not agree with everything we’ve done. But the work that she has done to promote women’s rights, as co-chair of the Women’s March, is undeniably important and we are proud to join her in that effort.”
They included a statement from Women’s March’s Linda Sarsour: “We recommit ourselves to dismantling anti-Semitism and all forms of racism.”
Additionally:
When asked if the company has a position on Farrakhan, the Ben & Jerry’s spokeswoman told IJR, “No. We are focusing our efforts toward women empowerment.”
When asked by the Journal about the aforementioned paragraph in the IJR report, Ben & Jerry’s spokesperson Laura Peterson told the Journal in an email that it was in “response to Farrakhan’s remarks in the context of today’s release of our new flavor.”
“The two are not related at all, so I said no,” Peterson said.
In September, the co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s announced that they were going to introduce seven new ice cream flavors that promote seven specific Democratic candidates in the 2018 midterm elections.
“We need to come up with seven amazing ice cream flavors (and flavor names) that not only taste great but also capture the essence of what each candidate stands for,” the co-founders said on MoveOn.org’s website.
