My Starbucks Boycott is Over

Today I went back to Starbucks for the first time since their recent incident. As an advocate of equality/equity for all, a diversity and inclusion champion AND a black person I was deeply saddened by the racial discrimination that took place at a Philadelphia Starbucks in April. When I heard about what happened, I initially felt like I needed to boycott Starbucks. I’m the type of person that refuses to spend my money in places that don’t treat others fairly/well. There are a million other places to get coffee, especially in New York City, so boycotting was not hard.

What was hard, however, was accepting the fact that a company that I had grown to love and that I saw as a very inclusive organization, had displayed such a blatant and disgusting example of racial bias. Especially because I frequently discuss with my students how Starbucks is one of the most inclusive companies to work for.

I am a strong believer in going where you are accepted and not simply tolerated. But what I am learning to reconcile is how to separate the transgressions of one individual in a company and not using one or two separate incidents to broad-brush an entire organization. Starbucks has a long history of fostering an inclusion environment, from their commitment to hire refugees and veterans to their switch to red holiday cups.

I must say I was also somewhat impressed by the quickness of the damage control after the Philly incident. The CEO gave a formal apology on behalf of the company, and took accountability for the missteps of his employee(s). Also, closing all stores for a one-day diversity training was a step in the right direction, although as I’ve discussed before, one-day trainings are not enough to completely reverse a lifetimes-worth of learned stereotypes.

My ultimate goal is to inject more love into the workplace (and the world) and one way I believe we can do that is through dialogue and discussions. In addition, when you want to fix a problem, there first must be an acknowledgement that the problem exists. I commend Starbucks for acknowledging that they made a mistake and that there is a problem that needs to be addressed. More active steps need to be taken to remedy the issue in the long run (I would recommend ongoing diversity trainings every week), but I think they are taking some steps in the right direction. Reunited with my iced dark roast coffee ??

What do you think of Starbucks? Did you boycott after their latest incident? Why or why not?