"Yeah , yeah, I'll get you your frappuciono... AFTER I lecture you on Ferguson, MO"

[billfish678]

Customer of a colored persuasion: Slavery was bad mkay?

Overworked and underpaid Barista: WAS?!

And that’s when the fighting started…

[BigT]

@Richard_Parker

I agree that the notion that Americans would have productive conversations about race in this context is silly. But I think the error here was the CEO’s ignorance about the nature of racism rather than ignorance about the business economics.

Starbucks sells a luxury good: overly expensive coffee that you have to wait in line too long to get. The business of selling luxury goods is very different from selling other things. You aren’t competing on price and efficiency. You are selling an idea, an experience. That’s why Starbucks pays so much attention (and spends so much money) on ambiance and carefully controlled experiences. That’s why they make their coffee distinctive by over-roasting it.

For well over a decade, Starbucks has branded itself as a business with a social mission. They pay their employees well. They buy fair trade coffee. They are Seattle. So it seems entirely consistent with their luxury brand image to try to market themselves as being productive on racism. If there’s a trade-off with efficiency, or annoying some customers, that stuff doesn’t really matter if it perpetuates whatever ideas underly Starbucks as a luxury good.

The “luxury goods” part is the problem. It means the customers are supposed to be there for a pleasant experience. But a racial conversation isn’t going to be pleasant under the best of circumstances.

What you describe about the social activism is true, but the appeal is that the people going don’t actually participate in it. At most, they do something fun like passing a free drink to someone behind them. The customer is never made to be uncomfortable.

The underlying message is “Come here, have a great experience, and support something worthwhile.” But forcing a talk about race communicates “Come here and have a poor experience, because we need to educate you.” It communicates the customer is part of the problem that needs to be fixed, rather than part of the solution.

I mean, what do they expect you to do? Bring all your racist friends? The problem is supposed to be out there, not in here.

[Machine_Elf]

So has anyone been to Starbucks lately? Did it go something like this?

[madmonk28]

Honest to God, if you start to engage me in a race conversation before I’ve had my morning coffee, it will not end well.

“PBS NewsHour” anchor Gwen Ifill on Twitter.

[VinylTurnip]

@Machine_Elf

It was in the context of his comments on the relationship between Jews and African-Americans, therefore fair game in a discussion about race - point being (I think) that the issue of race in America is complex and therefore relatively little progress can be made before the people in line behind you start yelling at you to get the fuck out of the way so they can get their coffee.

As long as they have a separate express line marked NO RACE DISCUSSIONS, I think it’ll work out fine.

[purplehorseshoe]

… separate BUT EQUAL express lines, please.

[Alley_Dweller]

@purplehorseshoe

… separate BUT EQUAL express lines, please.

Separate but NUTRASWEET for me please.

[Typo_Negative]

I don’t want my barista to engage me about anything. I ain’t here for a conversation.

[kayaker]

@Typo_Negative

I don’t want my barista to engage me about anything. I ain’t here for a conversation.

Any prolonged eye contact and I cut the bitch.

But I’m like that.

[billfish678]

@purplehorseshoe

… separate BUT EQUAL express lines, please.

I think that issue was settled with the Supreme Court case of Sucrose vs Aspartame.

[Smapti]

…and Starbucks has abandoned the program, while insisting they totally intended to do so all along and they are in no way reacting to it having been a really bad idea.

[mhendo]

Wow, this was a spectacularly bad idea.

I happen to think that American society could benefit from a lot more open and honest conversations about race, but this is not how it needs to happen.

[Octarine]

@gigi

You know who else was extra-shot?

Franz Ferdinand!

[LunarPlexus]

@doorhinge

In short, I might discuss your racist problems online, on a bus, on a train, or on a plain, but I expect to eat and drink in peace.

In a boat? With a goat?

[gigi]

@billfish678

I think that issue was settled with the Supreme Court case of Sucrose vs Aspartame.

[doorhinge]

@LunarPlexus

In a boat? With a goat?

I would promote, and not misquote, anyone who underwrote, the financial note, to drain the moat, that currently separates the races.

[Slithy_Tove]

@Machine_Elf

So has anyone been to Starbucks lately? Did it go something like this?

Oh how those right-wing humorist so deftly skewer the empty pretensions of the left.

[doorhinge]

@Slithy_Tove

Oh how those right-wing humorist so deftly skewer the empty pretensions of the left.

HAHAHAHA. Yes, that was funny.

I like your “empty pretensions of the left” comment, also. That is so spot on.

[johnpost]

the message continues, they will only served mixed drinks from now on.

[Blue_Blistering_Barnacle]

@purplehorseshoe

… separate BUT EQUAL **express **lines, please.

*bolding/underline mine

That’s “espress line”! Geez! :rolleyes: