Ben And Jerry's New Flavor Controversy 2016: Twitter Mocks Ice Cream Maker's Support Of Black Lives Matter

Ben and Jerry’s ice cream may have recently announced a new flavor called Empower Mint in support of Democracy but Twitter users have been mocking another recent decision to support the Black Lives Matter movement. On Thursday, the official Facebook page of the ice cream maker tweeted, "Black Lives Matter. Choosing to be silent in the face of such injustice is not an option."

The company released a statement placed on the site explaining their choice to be vocal about the matter. “Systemic and institutionalized racism are the defining civil rights and social justice issues of our time. We’ve come to understand that to be silent about the violence and threats to the lives and well-being of Black people is to be complicit in that violence and those threats,” the statement read.

The statement received both support and backlash on social media. The hashtag #BenandJerrysNewFlavor began to trend on Twitter Friday with users mocking and encouraging new flavors based on social issues. One user wrote, “#BenandJerrysNewFlavor Rocky Road to Justice.”

The Vermont-based company released the statement on the same day that a St. Louis County, Missouri police officer was shot and killed. “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,” the company stated.

This is not the first time the company has supported what some may view as a controversial topic. Back in 2015, they released the flavor I Dough, I Dough following the Supreme Court decision to legalize same-sex marriages in the United States. Ben and Jerry’s was also the first company in Vermont to provide full health care benefits to same-sex partners of its employees.

Below are tweets featuring the hashtag #BenandJerrysNewFlavor.