Racisim isn’t something that’s immune to the cannabis industry. The resignation of Bethany Sherman, a CEO of a large marijuana testing lab in Oregon is a good example. Sherman recently resigned from her company after rumors of her being a neo-Nazi surfaced.
Per RawStory
According to The Oregonian, OG Analytical CEO Bethany Sherman announced her resignation and plans to sell the marijuana testing facility she founded in 2013. In a statement to the newspaper, she also said she’s only guilty of a “thought crime.”
“I find it extremely disconcerting that it is admired and revered to have ‘gay pride,’ ‘black pride,’ ‘Asian pride, or pride in any other cultural heritage, but if you have ‘white pride’ it automatically makes you a Nazi, and you are ostracized, attacked, and lynched by your community,” Sherman wrote. “I admit, I am proud that I am white, and I’m not ashamed of my heritage. And I admit that I have been so conditioned to feel shame about this pride that I discreetly sought community where I could.”
Sherman’s move to step down from the company came after a coalition of Pacific Northwest-based anti-fascist groups alleged she and her former partner Matthew L. Combs operated neo-Nazi social media accounts.
In a post published by Eugene Antifa, the coalition claimed they’d gained access to chat logs from Discord, a gaming chat app that is often used by white supremacists, that were linked to Sherman and Combs (who was also a co-founder of OG Analytical).
As The Oregonian notes, the antifa groups also allege that Sherman “supplied food and support for neo-Nazi gatherings and operated a Twitter account under the handle, @14th_word,” a reference to a white supremacist slogan claiming “we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”
OG Analytical’s lab director Rodger Voelker told the newspaper that after learning about the allegations, employees at the company decided they were uncomfortable with Sherman remaining at the helm of the lab.
“It blindsided all of us,” Voelker, who claimed to not have a relationship with Sherman or Combs outside of work, said. “It’s unbelievable that you can work with people — our relationship is purely professional. We don’t share personal beliefs, religious, political or anything else. This is just unbelievable.”