This summer, many brands have expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement, but those declarations often amount to nothing more than a corporate performance of values. Not so with Ben & Jerry’s. The ice cream brand has long advocated for the environment, workers’ rights, social justice and racial equality.

Now it is teaming up with the Who We Are Project to create a new podcast that will examine the legal discrimination, segregation and state-sanctioned violence Black people in America faced since the end of chattel slavery. “Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism In America” begins Sept. 15 and will run for six episodes. It is produced by Vox Creative and is the first original podcast series Vox has made in partnership with a brand.

“Who We Are” is based on a presentation by Jeffery Robinson, deputy legal director of the ACLU and the director of the ACLU Trone Center for Justice and Equality, that is also being made into a film documentary. Each 30-minute episode will focus on a different period of American history and address issues like housing discrimination, educational disparities, access to health care and the accumulation of wealth and will be hosted by New York Times bestselling author Carvell Wallace, host of the Peabody-nominated “Finding Fred” podcast about the beloved children’s TV host Mr. Rogers.

“Economic and social justice has been a part of Ben & Jerry’s mission since our founding 42 years ago,” said Jabari Paul, Ben & Jerry’s US Activism Manager in a statement. “We now sit at a critical inflection point in our nation’s history. If we are to seize the opening that this moment presents, we must be willing to acknowledge the sins of our past so that we move together toward a future of justice and equity.”

Ben & Jerry’s has been a supporter of BLM since at least 2016. In June, it called for the nation to “dismantle white supremacy” in an Instagram post. The brand’s Justice ReMix’d campaign has also tackled issues such as the school-to-prison pipeline and criminal justice reform.

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Ben & Jerry's (@benandjerrys) on Jul 24, 2020 at 8:01am PDT