Have you ever walked into a Starbucks and thought, “I really want an iced latte and a conversation about race relations in the United States?” Yeah, me neither. However, this week, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced the company’s new Race Together initiative – “an initiative from Starbucks and USA Today to stimulate conversation, compassion and action around race in America” – as is explained in this news story.
Here’s how it will work. Baristas at 12,000 Starbucks locations will write “race together” on the cup of anyone with whom they’d like to engage in a dialogue about race. They’ll write this after they spell your name wrong, of course. I’m kidding, I’m kidding…I’ve got nothing but love for the people who keep me caffeinated. The thing is, though, this is fraught with peril. Honestly I can think of so many things that could go wrong and so many reasons why this is a bad idea, and I’m not alone. By the way, this would probably be a good time to let you know that nearly 40 percent of Starbucks’s 200,000 employees are part of a racial minority group.
1. Starbucks baristas are trained to make coffee, not engage in sociological and political discourse. Race is a sensitive subject and it can bring about all kinds of emotional reactions – reactions that these baristas are not prepared to deal with.
2. Starbucks customers are there to buy coffee, not engage in sociological and political discourse. I don’t mind a casual conversation with the person making my drink; I enjoy it, actually. But I am not prepared to enter a debate. We usually end up talking about the weather.
3. Baristas can choose who they want to talk to about race. They get to decide which cups get “race together” written on them and which ones get a pass. This could be potentially disastrous.
4. Baristas have literally no clue what they’re getting into when they write on someone’s cup. Unless this customer is a regular and the barista’s known them for a while, they’re basically asking a perfect stranger to talk about arguably (no pun intended) the most contentious issue in our country right now.
5. Starbucks customers didn’t ask for this. Yes, these are conversations that need to happen. They are important and they shouldn’t be put off for the sake of convenience. That being said, I would argue that most Starbucks customers go to Starbucks because it is, in fact, a pretty convenient place to get coffee and they want to be in and out as quickly as possible. Or they want to camp out at a four-top table with their earbuds in and avoid human interaction for like six hours. These conversations could quickly turn sour if they catch customers at a bad time.
Bottom line: We need to have a serious conversation about race. We could even have it over coffee – that would be great, I love coffee. But we need to take it seriously enough to know where to start, and how to navigate the subsequent experiences… and the Starbucks line is just not that place.
Note: As of Sunday, March 22, Starbucks baristas will no longer be writing “race together” on cups, a decision that was the company’s plan from the beginning of the campaign and not a result of any negative response, according to spokesman Jim Olson. (AP)