The Starbucks' National Conversation On Race brought to you by Starbucks

[benjipwns]

http://news.starbucks.com/news/what-race-together-means-for-starbucks-partners-and-customers

It began with one voice

As racially-charged tragedies unfolded in communities across the country, the chairman and ceo of Starbucks didn’t remain a silent bystander. Howard Schultz voiced his concerns with partners (employees) in the company’s Seattle headquarters and started a discussion about race in America.

Despite raw emotion around racial unrest from Ferguson, Missouri to New York City to Oakland, “we at Starbucks should be willing to talk about these issues in America," Schultz said. "Not to point fingers or to place blame, and not because we have answers, but because staying silent is not who we are."

Partners were not silent. For more than an hour, at an all-hands meeting at the Starbucks Support Center, partners representing various ages, races and ethnicities passed a microphone and shared personal stories.

“The current state of racism in our country is almost like humidity at times. You can’t see it, but you feel it,” said one partner.

Thousands more voices continue the conversation

Over the past three months, more than 2,000 Starbucks partners have discussed racial issues at open forums in Oakland, Los Angeles, St. Louis, New York and Chicago.

In the midst of a conversation with partners in St. Louis, a soft spoken young man shared that he was proud to have reached the age of 20.

“The magnitude of that statement might have been lost on many in the room, but for me, it brought to light a deeply troubling situation. For some young people in our country, just staying alive is their biggest and most important accomplishment,” said Kelly Sheppard, a Starbucks 15-year partner who attended two of the forums. “How could that be in 21st century America with all of the promise and opportunity our nation provides?”

In each forum, partners demonstrated vulnerability and courage as they shared personal stories. It was clear to those who attended, the gatherings highlighted the mission and values of Starbucks, and the partners’ desire to do more.

Starbucks customers are invited to join the discussion

Baristas in cities where the forums were held said they wanted to do something tangible to encourage greater understanding, empathy and compassion toward one another. Given their willingness to discuss race relations, many partners wanted to begin conversations with their customers too. Partners in New York, Chicago, St. Louis, Oakland and Los Angeles have voluntarily begun writing “Race Together” on Starbucks cups. Partners in all Starbucks stores in the U.S. will join them today. Partners in Starbucks® stores may also engage customers in conversation through Race Together stickers available in select stores, and a special USA Today newspaper section arriving in stores later this week.

In addition, full-page ads in The New York Times and USA Today support the Race Together initiative, which will be further outlined during Starbucks 2015 Annual Meeting of Shareholders in Seattle on Wednesday.

Race Together is not a solution, Schultz acknowledged, “but it is an opportunity to begin to re-examine how we can create a more empathetic and inclusive society – one conversation at a time.”

[benjipwns]

Not everyone is on board:
http://www.vox.com/2015/3/17/8230723/starbucks-race-conversations

So the objective literally is just to talk. Not to confront and dismantle racism. Not to identify its perpetrators (in fact, Schultz seems to discourage this). Not to find solutions to racial equality or decrease racial bias. But just to talk.

This confuses the problem in America with inadequate chitchat about race that fails to dismantle structural racism and make sure implicit bias (Read: Understanding the racial bias you didn't know you had) doesn't have a continued impact in every area of life.

But getting people to speak up about race isn't the hard part. In fact, the most racist and least informed among us are already especially comfortable talking about this topic. The challenge that needs to be addressed — and that Race Together doesn't even touch — is convincing people racism exists and is wrong, and that real changes need to be made to address how deeply it's embedded in American society.

Race isn't the problem — racism is

Starbucks' release describes the initiative as the continuation of the "discussion about race in America" that began during its Ferguson Forums, and Schultz characterizes it as "an opportunity to begin to re-examine how we can create a more empathetic and inclusive society — one conversation at a time."

According to USA Today, the "conversation starters" accompanying the initiative include things like, "In the past year, I have been to the home of someone of a different race ___ times" and " How have your racial views evolved from those of your parents?"

For instance, just think of the classic responses of a white person who's accused of being racist. "But I have black friends!" (or, better: "I'm not racist! I don't see color"), which are so common and so ridiculous that they're the often the butt of jokes. This is a reminder that people can perpetuate racism while simultaneously talking about it — and creating their own narratives about how race plays out in their personal lives.

The initiative seems to frame people of different races as something akin to fans of different sports teams — people who are on equal footing but have somehow become worked up over misplaced hostility toward one another that they would let go of if only they could recognize their common humanity. Focusing on this vague idea of race as a boogeyman that torments all of us equally (and might disappear if we just talk it out) doesn't actually force introspection about racism — which is the source of our problems.

If Starbucks wants to change Americans' thinking one person at a time, it would be better off making customers aware of their implicit biases and encouraging them to confront and reject them (studies have suggested this might actually be effective), rather than encouraging them to have conversations that suggest everyone's view is valid and helpful by virtue of being aired out in a coffee shop. For example, it could set up consoles at which anyone who was interested could take the computerized test created by Harvard researcher Mahzarin R. Banaji to assess subconscious associations about various racial groups.

It sets up employees to deal with customers' biases and hate

This initiative puts the 40 percent of Starbucks' US employees who are members of racial minority groups in the (awkward at best, potentially traumatizing at worst) position of opening themselves up to customer opinions that invalidate their experiences with racism or assault them with resentment over their very presence in the country.

After all, the Washington Post reported on a series of recent surveys that reveal some white Americans think discrimination against them is a bigger problem than discrimination against black people. Pew has found that whites and blacks hold dramatically different views of the very issue around Ferguson that sparked this initiative: racial bias and use of excessive force among police. Meanwhile, a 2013 Center for American Progress report concluded that 36 percent of Americans fret that rising diversity means "there will be no common American culture."

It's frightening to imagine the kinds of comments these beliefs could inspire in the short time it takes to make a latte.

Meanwhile, members of racial minority groups who simply want a cup of coffee might find themselves held hostage by baristas empowered by their employer to share their sincerely held but possibly disturbing views on these issues.

It's not just people of color who stand to be burdened by this plan. Thoughtful white customers who are aware of the role of racism in American society but are self-conscious about their lack personal expertise could be placed in the difficult position of being unprepared for an impromptu conversation and not wanting to offend or cause additional harm. Others could be baited into revealing their biases and end up feeling exposed, without any tools for dealing with the aftermath of a conversation in which they feel they've been set up to be the bad guy.

The very nature of a coffee shop interaction — quick and superficial — leaves plenty of room for casual repetition of racist beliefs and not much for education or increased understanding.

Schultz should have supported people and organizations that know what they're doing when it comes to racism

It's presumptuous — and a little delusional — of Schultz to think Starbucks is meeting an unmet need by making race a topic of focus. There are entire fields of study and organizations dedicated to dismantling racism's effects in our lives on a national and personal level.

This CEO — who, again, seems sincerely interested in remedying racism — had so many options other than throwing out the word "race" and saying, "Discuss!"

Just a few examples: He could have chosen to offer financial support to scholars, artists, and nonprofits that have long been dedicated to understanding and confronting racism and raising awareness about it. He could have partnered with organizations that work to dismantle discrimination, like the NAACP or ACLU. He could have supported the exchange of ideas by helping prop up underfunded ethnic-studies programs or offering his employees the chance to attend conferences like the ones put on by the racial justice organization Race Forward. He could have stocked his stores' shelves with historical texts about American racism, or the work of people like Tim Wise, a white anti-racist author.

Is the KKK an organization that "knows what it's doing when it comes to racism"?

[recursivelyenumerable]

I hope this doesn't kill off local mom-and-pop national conversations on race.

[Kara]

Two thumbs down at there being no Queequeg shout outs. 

[Yeti]

I tried their pumpkin-spice white guilt, it was pretty good

[Brehvolution]

Is this just to deflect off having a conversation about shitty wages for baristas?

[MrAngryFace]

I got this on my cup today and I showed my girlfriend and we agreed that we were far too white to have the conversation in any meaningful way

[Positive Touch]

Twitter found the dude who came up with this and had him closing down his own account in like an hour

[Kara]

Is this just to deflect off having a conversation about shitty wages for baristas?

It cracks me up that some stores are Wobblie shops.

http://www.iww.org/unions/dept600/iu660/starbucks