Recently there has been a video that has been stirring up a lot of conversation. Two black men who entered a Starbucks in Philadelphia were arrested because they did not purchase any coffee. It is said that the two gentlemen who were in the Starbucks asked employees if they could utilize the bathroom. They were instead rejected and told that only paying customers were allowed to get the code to use the restroom there. Despite being denied to use the bathroom at Starbuck the two unidentified men decided to have a seat at the one of Starbucks table. It was not long before the manager of the store called the police on these men to escort them out of the cafe.
The customers who witnessed the whole ordeal say the men were doing nothing wrong and wonder why this has never happened to them when they don’t order anything. With the fast growing use of technology it was not a surprise that someone caught this on camera. There have been conversations about why Starbucks arrested these two innocent men and why Starbucks is “Anti-Black”.
Protesters who heard about the incident took the time to shut down the cafe while chanting that Starbucks was Anti-Black. The councilman of Philadelphia, Kenyatta Jackson insists that something had to be done. Jackson spoke to the CEO of Starbucks and Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and said that he was not pleased with the actions that were set to take place. Jackson also took the time to mention that Starbucks should engage in training more diverse workers.
The CEO of Starbucks said that he did not want to point blame on anyone. He acknowledged the fact that black men are constantly being stereotyped and misjudged but insists that he did not want to blame anyone for the incident. He says that instead of looking to point the finger at one person he focuses on the fact as to why it was set up to happen. He wants to make sure that things like this are prevented in the future.
After the Starbucks incident and many others it is apparent that racism still exist sadly. And with the constant use of social media and technology racism seems to be getting more common now the more it is publicized. Hopefully Starbucks can learn from their arrogant mistakes set standards to other companies so that things like this never happen again.