Ben & Jerry’s can embrace ‘Land Back’ by returning its own headquarters to Native Americans
Jack Elbaum
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Ben & Jerry’s is proud to be the woke ice cream.
It brandished those credentials yesterday when it tweeted, “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.”
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But it is safe to assume this is not only the company’s most bizarre political stance, it is also its most hypocritical.
If Ben & Jerry’s was truly committed to the “Land Back” movement it describes as “all about restoring the rights and freedoms of Indigenous people,” then surely it could be a leader and return its own corporate offices to the Native Americans first.
Ben & Jerry’s headquarters is in South Burlington, Vermont, which was home to the Abenaki tribe before the British colonists came and before America was founded. Considering what the company is calling for, it does not seem too unreasonable for us to expect it to step up, be the first to give the land back, and presumably return to Europe.
After all, Ben & Jerry’s wrote that this “Land Back” movement is “about dismantling white supremacy and systems of oppression and ensuring that Indigenous people can again govern the land their communities called home for thousands of years.” I doubt Ben & Jerry’s would want to, in its own words, be a part of perpetuating white supremacy and preventing Native tribes from governing their own land. In fact, it would be quite cruel for this huge corporation to simultaneously advocate “Land Back,” acknowledge the harms of not returning the land, yet not actually give back the land it occupies.
It may be fun to imagine, but, of course, Ben & Jerry’s will never actually give back the land its corporate office sits on. It will simply exert pressure on others to give up their land.
For Ben & Jerry’s, this type of over-the-top rhetoric is not actually about doing anything; rather, it is about signaling its supposed enlightenment and virtue. But it does not come without a cost. When ideas that explicitly reject America — painting it as a force for evil in the world — become normalized in America, it paves a road of gold toward societal decline and decay.
This is not to say we can or should gloss over our history with the Native Americans. We can’t and we shouldn’t. But it cannot be the centerpiece of our national consciousness either, as some would like to make it. The reason is simple: A society that does not even see itself as fundamentally good will never survive. Nations need gratitude, direction, and optimism at their core. Not self-hatred.
Nor is this a call for blind jingoism. Rather, it is pointing out that the idea that Americans have nothing to celebrate — and should instead only think about the issues we faced in our past and continue to face today — is completely absurd. We have the best constitution in the world and the greatest economy in the world. Millions of people would risk death for the chance to come to the United States because it both represents, and is, a beacon of hope.
But Ben & Jerry’s rejects all of that. Unfortunately, more Americans than ever are starting to agree. It is our job to try and turn the tide.
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Jack Elbaum is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.