In the days after the Capitol attack, Ben & Jerry’s did more than issue a corporate press release; they drew a moral line. By calling January 6 “a riot to uphold white supremacy” and pointing to the impunity of “mostly white insurrectionists,” they forced a bitter truth into public view: race shaped not only who stormed the building, but how power responded. Their statement, aimed squarely at white Americans, insists that silence is not neutrality, it is complicity.

As Biden assumes office amid a deadly pandemic and a reckoning over systemic racism, the choice is stark. Either the country confronts the structures that made January 6 possible, or it retreats into comforting myths about “a few extremists.” Ben & Jerry’s, an ice cream brand, should not have to lead this conversation. Yet their challenge remains: will white people step up to dismantle the system that protects them, or watch history repeat?