by Chukwuemeka Nwando

What’s crackalackin! So many of you who read this blog post (My first official) will be one of a few people:

Friends who support me in everything I do and Strangers who took a chance on some random guys post to see if it will pique their interest.

It’s important for all opinions to be heard no matter how stupid radical or dull it can be. It is also important for us to call out those stupid dull and radical opinions so that people understand that those ideas may be stupid dull and radical. My ideas may even be stupid dull and radical. Call me out on it so I may re-evaluate those ideas and see if your criticism is worth considering. But I do have one belief which I will unapologetically stand behind.

Nuance

I do believe in nuance. Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg made a statement on “the Breakfast club” on how he doesn’t agree with Chick-Fil-A’s beliefs yet he does agree that their chicken is bomb. Sometimes we abhor the idea of sharing something in common with someone whose beliefs we strongly disagree that we ignore what makes us similar.

Now I’m not saying that you if you choose to boycott Chick-fil-A due to their conservative Christian views then you’re in the wrong. You have the right and ability to mobilize and decide not to indulge in their succulent masterpiece we call chicken. (Honestly, chicken isn’t even the best type of meat, but they are on par with In n out and shake shack.) Now…I do believe that you should keep that same energy with major corporations such as Nestle and it’s subsidiaries as well as Walmart and any non-organic food item eaten. Here’s a list of some major companies and their human right violations they made against humanity.

Nestle-(Gerber, toll house, KitKat, Smarties, lean cuisine, Dreyer’s ice cream, Nesquik and more):

Nestle is the third largest buyer of cocoa supply from the Ivory Coast where 109000 child laborers are working in hazardous conditions. They also support the privatization of public water sources.

Coca Cola-(and all drinks under its brand)

Coca Cola has caused water shortages in thousands of communities in India, have gotten people killed for unionizing in Columbia, and also considered one of the most discriminatory companies in the world.

Chevron

In Nigeria, Chevron has hired private military personnel who at one point had fired live ammunition’s into the crowd. In 2004 they were facing a lawsuit because one of its subsidiaries was complicit in rape, summary execution, torture, forced labor and forced migration.

Walmart

Walmart is notorious for destroying local markets and small businesses. They have a long record of union busting, child labor, sex discrimination and forced overtime. They receive many of its supplies from sweatshop workers in China, Indonesia Bangladesh, Nicaragua and Swaziland.

Now, in no way am I trying to label all people as hypocrites. However, I do believe in nuance and the truth behind those nuances. You can like the services Coca Cola provides and believe that what they’re doing in Columbia is bad. Just like you can like Chick-Fil-A’s chicken and believe that what their underlying belief is hateful. Ultimately you have to decide whether you can separate the goods and services companies provide from the means of providing them or the stances a company takes.