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This week, Starbucks launched a new campaign called #RaceTogether, an initiative designed to encourage baristas and coffee drinkers around the country to “have a conversation” about race. Although many of us mistook the headlines for a satirical entry on The Onion, the company confirmed that Starbucks employees now have the option of writing #RaceTogether on a customer’s cup. If this happens to you, then you’ll know you’ve been selected to say something about race. Despite a steady streamof criticism and concern expressed on social media by anti-racists across the color spectrum, the company seems intent on pressing forward.
To some, encouraging people to “talk about race” sounds like a step up from a culture that all too often proffers the post-racial fantasy that racism is a “thing of the past”. Isn’t it anti-racist to take a stand and say that racial inequality is a legitimate and important topic of conversation? Well, sure, but this is not what Starbucks has proposed. Rather than thinking through the best practices that might foster aproductive discussion about race and racism, the company executives seem content to just sort of tell everyone else that they need to discuss the topic without providing any educational resources or guidelines whatsoever. In a letter to employees, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz stated that he conceived of the idea “not to point fingers and not because we have answers, but because staying silent is not who we are.”
