Yeah I do too - I’ve done it, more than once. Two middleaged white women would not get so much as a glance from the management.
2 Likes
Here’s the thing… One of the reasons this incident even got traction is because many of the white patrons were outraged because they too had been sitting at tables without having ordered anything. One woman had used the restroom despite not placing an order and nothing was said to her. It’s not even remotely odd to go in a Starbucks, or any coffeehouse really, and see people sitting there with their laptops or tablets and no purchased items in the table.
Also, this wasn’t the only incident at Starbucks. There have been a string of similar incidents reported/recorded. I don’t at all believe it’s an institutional problem at Starbucks, although it’s CEO obviously does. I think it’s part of the systemic racism that permeates this country. It’s not just Starbucks. You could replace Starbucks with the name of any large institution. It’s America, this country’s culture is the problem.
3 Likes
I agree - it’s not just Starbucks. Not by a long shot.
I’m not a fan of Starbucks but I do go into Panera from time to time…a similar joint. No one goes in and just sits down without ordering and you want to take exception with me but they don’t do it at at Starbucks either. I called the one down the road in Neptune Beach and the manager said no. They have no policy on how long you can stay after ordering but you can’t just squat there without doing so. And I think common sense dictates that’s probably the case in all joints like that.
“a string of similar incidents” in a chain coffee joint that must serve millions everyday is just not a credible statistic. I’m not saying the incident above didn’t have a foul racial component but I don’t need to soul cleanse myself or promote how goody two shoes I am by overstating the racial end of it. And alleging a level of racism that probably did not exist in this is not going to help solve it. Race was there. But so were young Cops.
Well Tena I live in the very deep South. Georgia is “up north” to me and I just don’t see this racism everyone is talking about. It’s there for sure but I’ve never seen a Black person hustled out of a food joint. I’m sure it happens but it just isn’t as prevalent as folks are making it out to be. I agree that one time is one time too many but fighting an adversary you have unnecessarily aggrandized isn’t the best way to go about beating it.
You live in a region that still holds segregated high school proms.
English isn’t my first language and I’m no master of it but in my native tongue your comet above leads with an affirmative and follows with a speculative. It would be hard to rectify the two. I’m sure two middle aged woman would have no problem. But this is my point: two days ago when this happened I’ll bet Starbucks served thousands of Black people. Had to. Statistically does this put is in the position to say what we are saying? What are we trying to do?
Together they wouldn’t know which way is north, but otherwise I agree with you.
No Stevie…we have no such thing here. And isn’t the event we’re talking about, the Starbucks thing,…one that took place “up North”? You know Stevie…go fuck yourself. You have no idea what goes on here but feel comfortable based on preconceptions about it to make that fucking stupid remark. There’s a word for that Stevie and that word applies even when you do it. That’s my damn home your running your fucking trap about and the home of many others in here. My family and friends live here. I love it here. I have no idea where you live or what goes on there. That’s why I don’t run my fucking mouth like you do.
We’re trying to right a wrong. Obviously since you admit that two white women wouldn’t have caused such a scene, the problem is racism.
OK fuck this. What I pointed out was an argument in numbers. I’m sure white women have had such problems but in number so low statistically they don’t justify the wild ass crap going on in here. Maybe YOU have not had this problem Tena but there’s way more to Heaven and Earth than in your experiences. I’ve never seen what happened to these men and I’m 67 and live in a community that’s near 40 % Black. maybe it’s a problem “up North”, ask Stevie, but here in Floriduh I’ve never seen it. Not from a national chain food joint. maybe Bubba in the pickup…but not like folks are trying to make it out to be. I’ve got a segregated prom to organize and a couple of crosses to wrap in gasoline rags so you’ll have to excuse me.
ST. MARTINVILLE, La. — Espinola Quinn views her quaint Louisiana town with a mix of love and loathing. It’s the place her parents — a bar owner and a soybean farmer — raised her; the place where nearly every face is familiar; the spot where she and her husband built their own sprawling house on the edge of the bayou and raised their three girls.
But St. Martinville is also disturbingly segregated: The town still holds separate white and black proms. And Quinn, who is black, hopes her daughters will make their own lives somewhere else.
“The 1964 Civil Rights Act has not come here yet,” said Quinn, who opted to bus her older daughters out of the parish for school and is now home-schooling her youngest, a 15-year-old.
“The community is still physically separated,” and that, she said, “has an effect on your thinking.”
1 Like
I really can see you are agitated, but I don’t think what I’m saying is wild. At all. I’m not saying this is a Starbucks’ policy. I think the manager at this place was to blame. But I think that the manager was definitely at fault.
1 Like
They probably could have stayed without incident, if only they had performed a couple tap dances and then shined a few patron’s shoes.
1 Like
No doubt. Or offered to do the dishes, though I suspect there are immigrants in the kitchen.
My comments on WaPo (and here) are not really about the incident itself - but about how people commenting responded to the situation – the arguments and rationalizations made – people displaying their belief that blacks should show a special deference to whites and should expect trouble if they don’t.
And by the way - I live in Texas, so I live in the south, too.
1 Like
The employee who panicked and called it in has been fired but she said
“Hi, I have two gentlemen in my cafe that are refusing to make a purchase or leave.” She gives the address of the Starbucks store, and the entire call lasts less than 30 seconds.
The police dispatcher called it a “disturbance” when he handed it off to the cops who eventually came. Such small changes blew up a minor issue
The Starbucks we’re talking about it is in an upscale district of PHL, Rittenhouse Square. What happens to black shoppers as well as Starbucks customers in this district does not happen to white people
Christian Hayden, 30, recalled a security guard searching his bags as he left a nearby Barnes & Noble. The guard found his copy of Ta-Nehisi Coates’s memoir “The Beautiful Struggle,” and would not let him leave until the staff had checked the shelves to make sure no copy had been stolen.
Trevor Johnson, 27, a bike courier, recalled being arrested in the square four years ago after an officer asked him to turn off his music and he got up to walk away.
And earlier this year, Michele Bradshaw, 49, said she left a Nordstrom Rack not far from the Starbucks after she noticed a security guard following her through the aisles of clothing.
The now fired Starbucks employee who called it in referred to “two gentleman” who wouldn’t leave. There’s some clear cut racial profiling going in a city that’s shamefully been doing for years.
@tena Kamau Bell was also asked to leave a coffee house. From SF Chronicle
Bell, a black Bay Area comedian and CNN host, had a similar experience in 2015 when he was ordered to leave a Berkeley coffee shop, though no one called police in his case. An employee at Elmwood Cafe suspected he was bothering a group of customers — four white women seated at an outdoor cafe table — and shooed him away. One of the women was his wife, and Bell had just strolled up to say hello to her and her friends. Bell wrote about the incident in his blog, which resulted in news coverage of the incident.
And I still dream of being an elitist. No, not kidding.