Here are the facts: Two black real estate agents walk into a Starbucks…trigger warning! Racism ahead!
They are waiting to meet a (white) real estate developer – isn’t it just like a white guy to disrespect a couple of black men by being late – and they aren’t going to order anything until he arrived to pick up the tab.
One of the (black) men asked for the key to the restroom while waiting and was denied because a) company policy states restrooms are “for customers only” and b) they haven’t purchased anything. I don’t blame them; Starbucks is well known for serving overpriced sugar bombs with a shot of burnt coffee bean espresso. Still, you know: “no shirt, no shoes, no service.” That of course was before the enlightened age of Obama when anybody, anywhere, at any time can be accused, prosecuted and convicted of being a racist faster than you can say “Rainbow Coalition.” Now days you better think twice before denying anyone anything.
So when the men were asked to leave because a) they still hadn’t purchased anything and b) they were taking up a table that paying customers might want to occupy they refused and you know the rest of the drill: police were called, arrests ensued, racism charged, tempers flare, CEOs apologize. And now the entire chain will close down for a half day in May in order that 175, 000 employees can be re-educated on the assumed inherent, implicit, unconscious racism that is latent in their hearts.
The mandatory “training” will be conducted by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and a contingent of luminaries from the Equal Justice Initiative, NAACP and Anti-Defamation League –all of whom will remain on retainer following the re-education camp in order to “review and monitor the effectiveness of the measures” Starbucks will put in place. I assume those measures will include, as they always did with Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition, generous donations to the above agencies which fight so hard to ensure that other businesses also implement measures to ensure racial and social justice in their communities.
Starbucks is a slow learner however. Remember the last time this same Philadelphia Starbucks store had a story about refusing restroom access to a non-paying customer? In that incident the person denied was a uniformed police officer - presumably white as no massive retraining program to educate staff on their inherent police bias was rolled out. That was way back in 2015; the exact date was 9/11 – which you would think would have been a bad day to “dis” first responders.
For the record, in the current Starbuck’s incident Philadelphia's police commissioner Richard Ross (black, not that it matters unless you’re keeping track) said that his officers did absolutely nothing wrong in making the arrests. That did not dissuade Starbuck’s from apologizing and launching the company wide racial sensitivity retraining initiative.
"The company's founding values are based on humanity and inclusion," said executive chairman Howard Schultz, who joined Johnson and other senior Starbucks leaders in Philadelphia to meet with community leaders and Starbucks partners. "We will learn from our mistakes and reaffirm our commitment to creating a safe and welcoming environment for every customer."
Because Howard Schultz has examined his conscience and found the chain he founded to be guilty: guilty of serving coffee while white.
Life was a lot simpler when we had malt shops instead of Starbucks and everybody drank either Pepsi or Coke.
Ironic isn’t it: when the world was black and white we didn’t seem to have all these issues.
Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and BlogsLucianneLoves, and Free Republic, Thanks!
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