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I live in the land of Starbucks. Between my home and my son’s school, there are at least three Starbucks stores. There are not one, not two, but THREE Starbucks at my local mall. Needless to say, when Starbucks makes news, everyone in the Seattle area pays attention.
So naturally, everyone paid attention when Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, launched his idea to #RaceTogether and jump-start “conversations” about race in America between you and your local barista.
The mockery was swift.
If the goal of Starbucks' #RaceTogether was to bring together all races in laughing at their ridiculous idea, it's working.
— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) March 17, 2015
I’ll make @Starbucks a deal: If your barista can spell my name correctly on the first try, he can then talk to me about race.
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) March 17, 2015
The initial promotions had some issues.
Oh my, the press photos for Starbucks' #RaceTogether initiative are all very pale. http://t.co/dPbhdz5FbJ pic.twitter.com/YxwVdxzji2
— Tim Newman (@tnewmstweet) March 17, 2015
The front office did not react well, as one Starbucks executive deleted his Twitter account – and then came back.
And even as Schultz (who is neither liked nor loved among Seattleites, just for the record), was defending his idealistic campaign…
… this happened.
@DLoesch got my "are you a racist test" from @Starbucks today #DAILYDANA pic.twitter.com/JELmtUpdi8
— Hellix Marcelius (@hellixmarcelius) March 20, 2015
And my jaw hit the floor.
I cannot even begin to describe on a personal level how offensive that flier is to me, as someone who grew up biracial. Let’s see, how many friends of a different race did my parents have? Uh, MY PARENTS were different races! Can we start with that? Eating a meal with someone of another race? Which side of the family was over for dinner? My God, can we stop this pointless and insane bean-counting? Or does someone like me, who is biracial, get an automatic pass because every time I look in the mirror, I see my father’s eyes and my mother’s chin?
And one of the worst parts about this entire campaign is that it is relying on the lowest-level employees – the baristas – to “start the conversation.” This has led to some predictable snark…
Congrats to Starbucks baristas for finally having a chance to use their sociology PhDs.
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) March 17, 2015
… some real-life consequences…
.@AceofSpadesHQ I can't help but think that @Starbucks baristas are seeing a serious decline in tips. #RaceTogether @DLoesch
— Slovydal (@Slovydal) March 20, 2015
… and some massive assumptions that pundits as well as baristas will probably make.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znV4AA9CNJU
How wonderful, that in 2015, we are now going to be having conversations based on what color skin the barista making your mocha frappucino thinks you have. So much for the content of people’s character. We’re going back to making assumptions, all because Howard Schultz decided to “have a conversation.”
But that conversation won’t be happening in Ferguson, Missouri… because there isn’t a Starbucks there. Whoops. This is an insulting joke being played on the American public, and it does nothing to ease tensions or bring people together, except in mutual disgust and mockery.
Appalled By The World says: You can’t fix stupid. And that idea was laughably stupid. Instead of making race less relevant the Left is trying to inject it into everything like some deadly bacillus. In other countries that were “monochrome”, so to speak, the Left played the class warfare card. Since that doesn’t fly as easily in the US and we have people from all over the world they’ve gone to playing the race card. Disgusting no matter what card those creeps play. Anything to stir up trouble is their goal.
I don’t do Starbucks-but if I did and they’d try to talk race I’d tell them that I hate everyone equally who is not me. Now give me my damned coffee and STFU!
Glenfilthie says: Well if my Barista climbed up on her high horse to lecture me about race – and she was black – I would end the conversation by telling her ‘If you don’t want to be called a nigger, don’t act like one…’
They don’t want to discuss the issue. They want to lecture. Screw them, I’ll get my coffee from Tim’s or McD’s. It’s better anyways, and the ethnics actually treat me like a customer.
Kim Quade says: Gotta say I feel rather sorry for the baristas. Here they just want to earn their measly wages, and now they are encouraged to enter into awkward conversations. Most of them just want to sell me coffee.
Appalled By The World says: Exactly. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to do that. Depending on how such a “conversation” goes a barista might get treated to a knuckle sandwich-or worse.
Merle says: I don’t patronize Starbucks as their coffee sucks, as well as being ridiculously overpriced. No impact on me at all, but I suspect this will cost them some business & I feel sorry for the waiters & waitresses.
Merle
Talk about an UBER Liberal Yuppie social experiment that was NOT thought through to the logical consequences!!!!! WOW!!
I haven’t willingly been to a Starbucks in 20 years….my card-carrying Democrat daughter has gotten me into one once. The “Let’s go someplace and talk about our week, Mom!” gambit…….hey, I got a cold, caffeine-free whatever-they’re-called and a muffin, she paid…not bad for about 20 minutes. You cannot just talk at a Starbucks, way too busy, so we’ve not repeated it.
Personally, I drink one cup of coffee in the morning, then switch to chamomile tea for the rest of the day. My granddaughters are big fans of Dutch Bros., and, when I was working, I sometimes used to stop at a local drive-through for a double mocha in the morning. But, I’ve been retired for 9 years, so my 1 cup in the morning is good enough.
Starbucks has always been rather “full of itself” snobby for my taste!!
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