Many colleges and people everyday go to Starbucks whether it's just to get a cup of coffee, sit down and study, or just catch up with friends. However, Starbucks was under fire this week after two black men were arrested inside of one of the locations in Philadelphia who were waiting for a family friend to meet them at Starbucks.
Instead of avoiding, deflecting, or ignoring the problem of racial bias within the store, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz visited Philadelphia for a few days and announced on Tuesday that over 8,000 stores in the US will close on May 29 for "racial-bias education geared toward preventing discrimination in our stores" according to a press release. The training will be provided to around 175,000 employees and will be a part of onboarding for new employees.
While we can joke about how enjoying Starbucks makes us basic, we have to take a moment to appreciate how they are making practical efforts to work on the problem of racial bias and acknowledging how there is still much work to be made.
One of the highlights I took away from the video was the white gentleman using his privilege to help the men who were being arrested. He continued to press the officer and the manager as to why they were being arrested and said that basically if it was a white person, they would not have been arrested.
That experience is a strong example of utilizing your privilege for good. Privilege is multifaceted, but one of the problems that is still faced is the idea of what a bystander should do. The man and woman in the video continuously ask police "what did they do?" and "why are they being arrested?" This is a solid example of utilizing privilege and being a positive example of being a bystander instead of just sitting there and watching like our society tends to do.
However, there are still many issues that still impact our society today. There are still arrests of unarmed black men and women and killings. While our society is growing acceptance of people who identify as LGBTQ+, we still need to recognize and validate black individuals who identify as transgender and those who identify as LGBTQ+.
I cannot speak on those experiences and will never be able to understand what living life as a someone who is black or a person of color will experience. What I can do is to continue to learn and be educated and learn from those around me.
What Starbucks is doing is great. It is being a part of the solution to educate others about racial biases in the workforce and in their own personal beliefs. That is a step in the right direction especially due to the number of individuals who are being educated and will receive this education in the future. My hope is that we continue to advance on this type of education to help make our society more aware and inclusive.
