On June 5, 2020, the Twitter account for Fruit Gushers, the little packets of candy that are like diabetes-inducing ravioli, posted as follows: “Gushers wouldn’t be Gushers without the Black community and your voices. We’re working with @fruitbythefoot on creating space to amplify that. We see you. We stand with you.” Fruit By the Foot retweeted it, writing: “Teaming up with @gushers. We are listening & committed for the long term. Stay tuned.”

Well, I have stayed tuned, and it is a shame to see that Gushers and Fruit By the Foot have not been successful at ending racist violence using their strategy of vague buzzwords, such as “spaces” and “voices” and “standing with.” What’s worth mocking here, specifically, is the idea that using mere rhetoric actually is helping rather than just posturing. Prosecutors who worked on the Derek Chauvin trial helped. People who do boring work giving out food and education so it sucks less to be poor and is easier to get out of poverty help. Good police officers help. “Standing with communities” and “creating space” to “amplify voices?” That just makes you sound like you went to a liberal arts school and know how to chant at a protest, but not how to distinguish between improvements in actual material conditions. You are merely spreading social justice slogans to places such as, well, social media marketing specialists at the Gushers branding office.