Racist Starbucks

Story by Serenity Bussey. Photo courtesy of Twitter.com.

JUNE 4, 2018: Starbucks is really taking this discrimination topic seriously! Next week on May 29th, Starbucks will be closing more than 8,000 company-owned stores in the United States for one afternoon to educate employees about racial bias, according to CNN.

This makes a lot of sense after what took place when two black men were being racially profiled. Well, this is what happened. Two black men walked into the Philadelphia Starbucks and were waiting patiently for another friend to show up. Then, all of a sudden the store manager started racially profiling the men by asking them why they are sitting in the store.  I ask the question, “Why have they been sitting down in the coffee shop for so long?” Really? I thought Starbucks was a coffee shop where people sit and lounge for long periods of time. I have seen people on their laptops, reading books, eating, just sitting on the couch chatting with friends, doing homework, and some even playing chess. So, for the manager to pick on these two men just saddens me to my core.

I think some serious training should take place and that’s exactly what Starbucks did. The training was for more than 175,000 workers including managers, clerks, cashiers, and you name it. Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson said in a statement on CNN, “We are learning what we did wrong and the steps we need to take to fix it.” This is just one step and this problem isn’t going to go away overnight without education. Do you think this is a step in the right direction?

Serenity Bussey is a 3rd grade scholar at Friendship Public Charter School.