Thread: Starbucks to close 8,000 US stores 4 a day ... Black Lives Matter

^^ That's what a typical Honkie would say. Ya bloodclooot *said whilst sucking lips.

--EDIT--

Damn, new page. This was directed at that Italian Luigi bloke about racism against the whites 2 posts back.

Originally Posted by Luigi

wouldn't most people be asked to leave if they refuse to buy anything, regardless of race?

I think that's the real issue. If they ask everybody who's not buying anything to leave, there's no problem. If they have a history of letting whitey stay and telliing blacks to go then it's racist.

Sounds to me like the mgr just called the cops rather than try talking to them.

Originally Posted by uncle junior

I think that's the real issue. If they ask everybody who's not buying anything to leave, there's no problem. If they have a history of letting whitey stay and telliing blacks to go then it's racist.

Sounds to me like the mgr just called the cops rather than try talking to them.

I agree, but the standard protocols dictate, that the common courtesy of making a minimum purchase (at least), is appropriate, in any coffee cafe.

Regardless of any profiling issues, those two black dudes could have just simply ignored the slight, made the requested minimum purchase, and avoided all that drama.
Indeed, those two black boys (along with many others) need to spent 6-months in the LOS, and get an education.

Originally Posted by TuskegeeBen

those two black boys need to spent 6-months in the LOS

Chocolate Men.

No problems, the manager will soon get a new "job". Fastest growing economy, primarily shot time retail.

What a country.

Originally Posted by Cujo

All this talk about racism is nonsense.
Just a couple of assholes taking advantage of free wifi, toilets and aircon.

If this was really the case, then I am certain sure that that Starbucks would have long before now ensured that some suitably edited surveillance camera footage [AKA American at BKK airport style] of this incident, was leaked onto social media. The fact that they have not done so, and have shut all American branches down for staff retraining tells me they know they are on the wrong side of the argument.

Originally Posted by Listerman

The fact that they have not done so, and have shut all American branches down for staff retraining tells me they know they are on the wrong side of the argument.

This.

According to the dudes themselves: they went into the store (where one of them has been going as a customer since he was 15 yrs old); one of them asked to use the bathroom but was told he couldn't as a non-paying customer; he said OK and made no issue of it; they both sat down; someone approached and asked if they wanted to order; they said 'not yet' as they were waiting on a third person to join them for a business meeting; it was at that point the cops were called.

"The fact that they have not done so, and have shut all American branches down for staff retraining tells me they know they are on the wrong side of the argument."

Tells me they fear a greater backlash from the PC brigade, extended bad publicity from a media hunting for 'racist stories' involving multi-national giants, and the best (and cheapest) way to avoid this is to publicly close the stores for staff 'retraining' about how to deal with people that come into the store and refuse to buy anything and refuse to leave, if they aren't white.


Just a PR move.
They could easily retrain them without closing all the stores.

What will the retraining be? Let non-whites do anything they please in the store, because if you don't any standard action will be labeled as racially motivated, we'll all be labeled racist and the stores will have to close down again to show that we're not?

Well the Police / Police commish have apologized now too.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/apr/19/starbucks-black-men-feared-for-lives-philadelphia

Two black men arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks said they were just waiting for a business meeting – and a week later still wonder how that could have escalated into a police encounter that left them fearing for their lives.



Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson spoke to the Associated Press in their first interview since video of their 12 April arrests went viral.

Robinson said he thought about his loved ones and how the afternoon had taken such a turn as he was taken to jail. Nelson wondered if he would make it home alive.

“Anytime I’m encountered by cops, I can honestly say it’s a thought that runs through my mind,” Nelson said. “You never know what’s going to happen.”

Sign up to receive the top US stories every morningThe arrests, recorded on a white customer’s cellphone video, galvanized people around the country who saw the exchange as an example of racism.
The men have met with the CEO of Starbucks and are pushing for meaningful change so what happened to them does not happen to anyone else.

Police this week released a recording of the call from the Starbucks employee that led to the arrest. In it, a woman is heard saying the men refused to “make a purchase or leave”.

Starbucks has promised to shut all 8,000 company-owned stores across the US on 29 May to train employees about unconscious bias.

Nelson initially brushed it off when the Starbucks manager told him he couldn’t use the restroom because he wasn’t a paying customer.

He thought nothing of it when he and Robinson, his business partner, were approached at their table and were asked if they needed help. The 23-year-old entrepreneurs declined, explaining they were just waiting for a business meeting.

A few minutes later, they hardly noticed when the police walked into the coffee shop until officers started walking in their direction.
“That’s when we knew she called the police on us,” Nelson said.

Social media video shows arrests of black men at Philadelphia Starbucks – videoNelson and Robinson, black men who became best friends in the fourth grade, were taken in handcuffs from the Starbucks in Philadelphia’s tony Rittenhouse Square neighborhood, where Robinson has been a customer since he was 15.

“We were there for a real reason, a real deal that we were working on,” Robinson explained. “We put in a lot of time, energy, effort … We were at a moment that could have a positive impact on a whole ladder of people, lives, families. So I was like, ‘No, you’re not stopping that right now.”’

The Democratic mayor, Jim Kenney, who is white, said what happened at the Starbucks “appears to exemplify what racial discrimination looks like in 2018”. The police commissioner, Richard Ross, who is black, said in a Facebook post that arresting officers “did absolutely nothing wrong”, and added that Nelson and Robinson were disrespectful to officers.

Ross said officers did what they were supposed to do and were professional in their dealings with the men, “and instead they got the opposite back”.

Nelson and Robinson originally were supposed to meet Andrew Yaffe, a white local businessman, at a Starbucks across town. But the plan changed, and they agreed to meet at the Rittenhouse Square location, where they had met several times before on a potential real estate opportunity.


The black men arrived a few minutes early. Three police officers showed up not long after.

Nelson said they were not questioned but were told to leave immediately.

Yaffe showed up as the men were being handcuffed. He can be seen in the video demanding an explanation for the officers’ actions. Nelson and Robinson did not resist arrest, confused and unsure of what to think or what might happen next.

“When you know that you did nothing wrong, how do you really react to it?” Nelson said. “You can either be ignorant or you can show some type of sophistication and act like you have class. That was the choice we had.”
It was hardly their first encounter with police, a rite of passage that becomes a regular occurrence for many black men their age. But neither had been arrested before, setting them apart from many of their peers in the gritty south-west Philadelphia neighborhood where they grew up.

Attorney Stewart Cohen, representing Nelson and Robinson, said the men were illegally profiled. He pointed to Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race in hotels, restaurants, theaters and other public accommodations.

Seattle-based Starbucks has said the location where the arrests occurred has a policy that restrooms are for paying customers only.
Nelson and Robinson spent hours in a jail cell with no outside contact and no sense of what would happen next. They were released after midnight, when the district attorney declined to prosecute them for trespassing. They had no idea the video of their arrests was making the rounds on the internet.

Over the weekend, attention and outrage over the video grew, prompting a protest at the local Starbucks restaurant and a national boycott. By Monday, the men were set to meet with Starbucks’ CEO, Kevin Johnson, to discuss what happened.

Johnson has responded quickly to public outcry around the arrests, calling them “reprehensible”, apologizing and ordering stores closed for mandatory training to tackle unconscious bias.

Nelson and Robinson said they are looking for more lasting results and are in mediation proceedings with Starbucks to implement changes, including the posting in stores of a customer bill of rights; the adoption of new policies regarding customer ejections, racial profiling and racial discrimination; and independent investigations of complaints of profiling or discrimination from customers and employees.

Robinson said he appreciates the public support the men have received but anger and boycotting Starbucks are not the solution.

“We need a different type of action … not words,” he said. “It’s a time to pay attention and understand what’s really going on. We do want a seat at the table.”
The two men were also interviewed on ABC’s Good Morning America on Thursday.

“I want to make sure that this doesn’t happen again,” Robinson said. “So what I want is for a young man or young men to not be traumatized by this and instead motivated, inspired.”
Asked what the men thought about criticism that they had violated the store’s rules, he said: “Rules are rules, what is right is right, and what is wrong is wrong.”

^^ Can't see anything wrong with any of that, other than the actions of the businessmen using a store for a business meeting, and refusing to buy anything and refusing to leave.


Except if the coppers showed up and took them out straight away, that they were 'disrespectful to officers' indicates that isn't the case.

Uptight white girl with who never talks to blacks kinda sorta asks them to leave but they don't pick up on the clues and choose to wait. Cops come looking to flex some muscle and put somebody in handcuffs, don't bother listening to both sides of the story to figure out what the problem is. Two more blacks end up in the system.

just another day in the US.


Or the 2 blacks have spun their story to make it look that way. Nobody's talking about the mgr's side. Must be an NDA involved.

After all, the coffee problems should not distract international community from their outrage of Assad's use of chemical weapons on the innocent kids... (Fortunately, there were firefighters with enough pressure in their water hoses - and the swift camera people)

Originally Posted by uncle junior

I think that's the real issue. If they ask everybody who's not buying anything to leave, there's no problem. If they have a history of letting whitey stay and telliing blacks to go then it's racist.

Sounds to me like the mgr just called the cops rather than try talking to them.

Yeah, I think this is the issue. I've been in Starbucks in the US and used the bathroom without buying stuff, but not all Starbucks may have the same policy (which they should).

The racist bias training is funny, but may be necessary for some people.

Maybe it's racist to sell Americanos because they are black?

As blacks were sold as slaves yonks ago.

oh look...a bunch of white guys on TD are complaining about blacks, "pc", and how racism doesn't exist.

Originally Posted by David48atTD

Black Lives Matter activist yells at a Starbucks employee. Starbucks share price actually rose overnight, so the training is seen as a positive by the Market.

The SB share price increase definitely works for me, However, that so-called "Black Lives Matter" activist, is just another U.S. Dept. of Human Health & Family Services ((over-paid ~ undercover)) governmental bureaucrat.

Originally Posted by David48atTD

Black Lives Matter activist yells at a Starbucks employee. Starbucks share price actually rose overnight, so the training is seen as a positive by the Market.

That SB share price increase definitely works for me,

However, that so-called "Black Lives Matter" activist (w/ the unnecessary megaphone), is just another U.S. Dept. of Human Health & Family Services ((over-paid ~ undercover)) governmental bureaucrat.

Nobody cares about the half-baked 'opinions' of someone too stupid to know the difference between the 'edit' button and the 'quote' button.

^^ (and ^^^)

zack is in a tough spot in that photo.

his fellow 'baristas' couldn't get further away from the scene if they tried.

Originally Posted by raycarey

oh look...a bunch of white guys on TD are complaining about blacks, "pc", and how racism doesn't exist.

Um, where the fuck do you get that from.
I think people are just saying that in this case people sitting around a coffee shop without buying anything and being asked to leave isn't unusual or racist.

Originally Posted by raycarey

zack is in a tough spot in that photo.

his fellow 'baristas' couldn't get further away from the scene if they tried.

Agreed ... Zack gets my Employee of the Month Award.