Coca-Cola quietly deletes mentions of BLM from company website
Coca-Cola has been a financial sponsor of Black Lives Matter for years, however, references to its support of the organization appeared to have vanished from its website in light of recent posts shared by the group siding with Hamas.
BLM Chicago and an organizer from Los Angeles are among those associated with the purported civil rights group to have publicly voiced support for the Iranian-backed Palestinian terrorist group following its latest wave of violence.
On Friday, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) revealed that he had caught the beverage giant “red-handed,” posting two screenshots of its website, one of which included references to BLM, and an updated version that does not.
Coca-Cola had originally stated on its website that Sprite, which it owns, had donated $500,000 to the Black Lives Matter Global Network to “support the group’s voting education efforts and their February 2021 Black Future Month program.”
“We’re in this for the long haul,” brand lead Aaliyah Shafiq noted. “Lasting change will not happen overnight, so we’re committed to continuing to amplofy the voices and efforts of our community, to listen and learn, and to actively help create a better shared future for America.”
In the updated version of their website, Shafiq’s quote is still there, however, the entire sentence highlighting the $500,000 contribution has been deleted.
“Editing your website is not enough,” Cruz said. “Americans DEMAND an apology.”
The posts in question were shared in the days following Hamas’ brutal massacre of civilians in Israel.
BLM Chicago featured an image of a paraglider with a Palestinian flag attached to his parachute. “That is all that it is!” was the caption.
Before long, users utilized X’s Community Notes feature to point out important context.
“The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas used armed gun men on Paragliders to enter a rave in Israel to kill over 260 innocent people partying,” the note read, adding that, “previous to this incident, Palestinians were not know[n] for paragliding.”
It was later deleted, though the group did remain steadfast in its support for the Palestinians over Israel.
The organizer from Los Angeles, Dr. Melina Abdullah, said in her post that “we must stand unwaveringly on the side of the oppressed,” adding, “when a people have been subject to decades of apartheid and unimaginable violence, their resistance must not be condemned, but understood as a desperate act of self-defense.”