Starbucks brews backlash with debate on U.S. race relations

Reuters | 3/18/2015 | Lisa Bartelein, Bill Rigny

[Signalman]

Reuters) - Starbucks Corp Chief Executive Howard Schultz has deftly navigated thorny issues such as gay marriage, gun control and Congressional gridlock, but his move to weigh in on U.S. race relations has brewed up a social media backlash.

The world's biggest coffee chain kicked off the discussion when it published full-page ads in major U.S. newspapers earlier this week with the words "Shall We Overcome?" at center page and "RaceTogether" and the Starbucks logo near the bottom.

[boop]

"Now, they want their baristas to engage customers on race relations?"

Engage?

If their regular customers told them what they REALLY think and not the PC-nonsense, I'd wager it would en-RAGE Starbucks.

I know many liberals who are just plain tired about defending the indefensible.

Just get my democrat-voting mom 5 minutes, and she'll give you an honest opinion on what she thinks.

Let's just say it is NOT in line with liberal thinking on racial issues.

A direct quote: "I'm SO sick and tired of the whining!"

[Steve_Seattle]

"If some 20-year-old hipster with somewhat less practical life experience than my dog dares to try to lecture me on anything, my response will be unpleasant enough to get my wife upset with me. There are few things I find more irritating than a fool who knows nothing claiming superior knowledge or morals at someone old enough to be his parent (or grandparent). Was our generation this smug and self-righteous when we were young?"

I'm not so sure. Maybe I'm projecting myself into the situation, but I think a lot of the employees really do NOT want to get involved in this sort of thing. I think it would be very stressful.

[boop]

"What possible good can come from this?"

Well put.

Start giving the "unapproved" answers, and you'll find an extra squirt of barista saliva in your morning latte.

Not good for business, either.

Some ideas are so stupid only a Starbucks CEO could come up with them.

I wager a buck that this costs them big time.

Watch for this campaign to quietly disappear.

[Josa]

Well.....my first question would be.....in which majority black neighborhood do you reside? Then ...why are all Starbucks stores in affluent, white areas thus denying jobs and commerce in minority neighborhoods?

[Josa]

I suggest a campaign ...... Any cup that has race together written on it gets spilled in the highest traffic areas. They spend all day swabbing the floor and race relations will be last thing on their mind

[catnipman]

great marketing campaign because Buppies make up such a huge proportion SBUX customers.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to boycott them because I haven’t bought one of their over-priced, very poorly made espresso drinks in years.

[Josa]

Well.....my first question would be.....in which majority black neighborhood do you reside? Then ...why are all Starbucks stores in affluent, white areas thus denying jobs and commerce in minority neighborhoods?

[Steve_Seattle]

"Some ideas are so stupid only a Starbucks CEO could come up with them."

This isn't the first time. Ten or fifteen years ago Starbucks sued a tiny Russian Orthodox monastery over their use of the term "Christmas blend" for one of their coffee products. Starbucks claimed proprietary rights to the term "Christmas blend." In a rare moment of judicial sanity, Starbucks lost.

Can you imagine a vast corporation like Starbucks being threatened by a monastery on Vashon Island consisting of three or four elderly monks supporting themselves by selling tea and coffee?

[Salgak]

. . .you mean a sanctimonious lecture from a heavily-indebted 24-year-old Liberal Arts and Crafts major with no actually employable skills. . .

[Impala64ssa]

The one time I’ve tried Starbucks their regular iced coffee, not the fancy overpriced stuff was actually pretty good. I can get that same type of coffee from many of the Cuban run mom-and-pop bodegas around Tampa cheaper without the holier-than-thou condescending guilt trip. Hey progressive types like the suits who run Starschmucks advocate that we BUY LOCALLY, right?

[txrefugee]

Instead of messing with race relations, Schulz ought to improve his wretched coffee, which tastes as if someone put cigarette ashes in it while brewing.

[Steve_Seattle]

"Then ...why are all Starbucks stores in affluent, white areas thus denying jobs and commerce in minority neighborhoods?"

If we still had investigative journalism in the Obama era, curious journalists would be looking into that very question, i.e., how many Starbucks outlets are located in high-minority, inner-city neighborhoods, or in places like Ferguson? But that question would only be raised if the Starbucks CEO were a conservative and he opposed gay marriage or supported Republican candidates.

[Impala64ssa]

.why are all Starbucks stores in affluent, white areas thus denying jobs and commerce in minority neighborhoods?
Come to think of it, I've yet to see a Starbucks on MLK Blvd., either the one near my old stomping grounds in Spring Valley, NY. or in Tampa, and the MLK down here is a long street running through some largely WHITE areas.

[catnipman]

“Why would anyone drink that swill anyway? Even McDonald’s coffee is much better. I make my own coffee at home.”

Yeah, their coffee and espresso-based drinks are indeed swill. I make EXTREMELY good coffee at home too and at a fraction of the cost of store-boughten coffee.

[catnipman]

“The rest of us just call him “moonbat liberal”. “

Or “daft” instead of “deft”.

[Steve_Seattle]

In Seattle, I think the only Starbucks in an area with a significant black population is a drive-thru only. That in itself is kind of interesting.

[RetiredArmy]

I have refused to go to starbucks since they refused to open the shop in Iraq for the troops I think it was years ago. I tell everyone I know that is the reason and when they hear it, they agree also.

[Don Corleone]

Advice to Starbucks:Just peddle your brackish kauphy. Leave the Rasiss’ stuff to the experts like Obama,Holder and Sharpton.

[I want the USA back]

Liberals always think they can change the world.

[artichokegrower]

Wonder how many black people or Latinos live in Howard Schultz’s neighborhood?

http://seattle-mansions.blogspot.com/2011/11/howard-schultz-217-million-pay.html

His home is on page 21 in LW 130 Homes. It is in Madison Park, south of the high rises, in an exclusive gated community of nine homes that are on the property of the William Garrard Reed estate. (He is the father of Gary Reed [10/1/10 blog post].) Howard drives through the community’s gate and then another gate to his property

Gotta to have all those gates to keep the riff raff out.