After just a short amount of time, Starbucks discontinued their plan of adding “Race Together” on their cups. People all over the world, especially on social media, have criticized the company’s intention for the campaign.
The Starbucks Company thought it would be a good idea to get the millions of coffee drinkers coming to their business to discuss racism and racial relations. The baristas (employees) were told to put the words #racetogether on the coffe cups in marker. When a customer asked what it meant, the barista was supposed to speak with them about racism or other related topics.
Many people felt violated by the conversation attempt. One coffee drinker Kim Wilson stated, “I come to get my morning coffee not to debate about social issues!” Another coffee drinker felt that the employees were not knowledgeable enough to handle themselves in this type of heated conversation. April Kincaid brought up a good point also, ” If the employee started a conversation with a racist and it got out of hand, what are they going to do? This type of confrontation could be bad for the business.”
#Racetogether on Twitter was trending worldwide but for reasons Starbucks didn’t want. Tweeters expressed how much they hated the idea of an employee talking about racial oppression and discrimination just to get a conversation going.
After calling the official Starbucks company, I received no details on the subject. They reportedly said they couldn’t give any insight on the campaign. After repeatedly giving me numbers to call and passing me on to different divisions, I finally landed upon customer service. They also came up with the conclusion that they couldn’t comment on the encouragement of writing on the cups.
I came up with the concept of calling many other Starbucks stores and asking them the same question, “Has anything interesting happened due to the Race Together conflict at your store?” I got answers varying from “Sorry, I don’t have any time” and “I’m not supposed to talk about it”.
Being patient and understanding is something that pulls you through a frustrating discovery. I finally got a hold of someone who was willing to give the time and effort to put some facts on the table. After asking my initial question, I had the pleasure of getting an answer of “I work at a corporate Starbucks. No one really was bothered by the “Race Together” campaign. I wasn’t bothered because we didn’t really know what it was for.”
The employee also said, “We just wrote it and no one cared because they didn’t really know what was happening.” The employee didn’t feel comfortable putting their name with their opinion but I secretly give them a congratulations for having heart and stating a honest opinion.
Everyone has their own opinions on how they run their companies. Whether it’s free advertising or actual support, Starbucks tried an experiment that went astray. CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schulz discontinued the Race Together campaign after only a short time due to heated criticism from social media and many news sources. It’s up to society to see if the outcome was beneficial or not.
Rawan Eid
Unis Middle School Journalism