You may have noticed Starbucks' red cups lack the level of festivity that we’re used to -- and that’s OK. In the past, we’ve seen them with snowmen, Christmas trees, and other festive depictions that are classic to the holiday, but this year the company decided to go with something a little more minimalist. This has, of course, pissed a lot of people off. Various hashtags have been floating around, including #MerryChristmasStarbucks, which is trying to start a movement to “not be politically correct, just correct.” This movement is incredibly dangerous.
The language we use when we talk about things is extremely important – it dictates how we think about issues, and this former pastor’s use of the subjective and enigmatic term “correct” is extremely dangerous, self-centered, and a perfect example of ethnocentrism. When you start evaluating cultures based on the values of your own, you move away from the very heart of anthropological study – a discipline that attempts (as much as humanly possible) to study and appreciate cultures world-wide, including the offended white Christians in America who see their worldview as objectively “correct."
Don’t get me wrong, there’s a whole lot of good that goes along with Christmas. I have a million fond memories of sitting around the tree, sipping cocoa, and spending time with family – but there are millions of Americans, not always excluding myself, who get caught up in the cultural constructions of Christmas, rather than the values that a god may have wanted them to honor. I can honestly say that if there is a god out there who wanted us to celebrate kindness, connectedness, and peace, I think he is severely disappointed at the current state of things.
Each year in America, consumerism unarguably wins over the masses much more successfully than the word of any deity. People are trampled to death each year at the doors of Wal-Mart and other supermarkets so that someone can be a little further in line to purchase that 42” TV. There are a lot of negative things that come along with Christmas, and one of them, for many, is the complete abandonment of the principles of kindness. But what if the red cups are an attempt to remedy that disparity between the ideas and practice of Christmas?
What if the red cups are an attempt to appeal to people of many religions, cultures, and traditions? America is traditionally hailed as “the great melting pot,” yet we see rhetoric such as “don’t be politically correct, just be correct” attached to ideas like the color of cups that offend the majority population – Christians. What you’re doing when you ‘wage a war on Starbucks waging a war on Christmas” is ostracizing other religions and cultures who may not necessarily want your culture plastered over their caffeine receptacle. When you boycott Starbucks because of their cups, what you’re really doing is waging a war on cultural acceptance and neutrality based on your own personal beliefs. The cups are red for a reason, and your personal worldview doesn’t make that fact objectively right or wrong – in fact, it doesn’t objectively mean anything.
Personally, I think that this whole ordeal has to do with change. People don’t like it. When the idea of “political correctness” challenges racist, discriminatory, and offensive rhetoric, people say “toughen up” because they have to change the way they act and speak, and change takes work. To be accepting of other cultures is hard, and that’s why there are culturally accepting disciplines in the humanities, programs like Affirmative Action, and the concept of being politically correct – because it’s so easy to become self-centered, even when it comes to a holiday that’s about giving rather than getting, spending time with loved ones, and celebrating the birth of a deity who preached kindness.
