Starbucks kicks out 2 black men for nothing

From Starbucks to Hashtags: We Need to Talk About Why White Americans Call the Police on Black People

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Police monitor activity as protestors demonstrate outside a Center City Starbucks on April 15, 2018, in Philadelphia. Police arrested two black men who were waiting inside the Center City Starbucks, which prompted an apology from the company’s CEO. Photo: Mark Makela (Getty Images)

https://www.theroot.com/from-starbucks-to-hashtags-we-need-to-talk-about-why-w-1825284087

“Don’t you ****ing walk away! Don’t ****ing walk away from me!” the 20-something-year-old woman screamed as she followed after the 20-something-year-old guy who just got out of her car. It was 2 a.m.; only the street lights were on, but the guy was clearly done with his girlfriend (probably ex-girlfriend at this point) and was just trying to get inside the building.

“You ****ing *******!” she screamed and ran after him, jumping onto his back for the angriest piggyback ride in history. He tussled with her for a bit, managing to slide her off his back with a thud. Then he kept walking to the apartment, cursing at her to leave him alone. This was several years ago—my friend Josh and I were awkwardly watching the whole thing. All we wanted to do was move a few final boxes into my first apartment in Laurel, Md., but this Real Housewives of Potomac cutscene was blocking our path to my second-floor unit.

“I’m gonna call the cops! I’ll tell them you hit me!” the woman screamed, sitting on the grass and pointing at her ex. “I’ll tell them you beat me up. They’ll get your ***.”

The man stopped dead in his tracks, turned around and gave her a look of shock, anger and then unmitigated fear. He was black. She was white. He knew exactly what she was saying, and so did I, and most horrendously, so did she. When white people threaten to call the police on black people—out of anger, out of spite, out of pure vindictiveness—they are effectively saying, “I’ll kill you!” They’re just using a legal extension of white supremacy to do it. It’s high time we start considering these bigots just as much a threat as the police that they summon to do their bidding.

This week, black America added “sitting at Starbucks waiting for a white friend” to the list of things that we cannot safely do without fear of police violence. Previous entries included sitting in your car, sitting in someone else’s car, standing on your front porch, standing on your back porch, surviving a car accident, asking for directions to school and, of course, breathing.

As a black man in America who has been harassed by police more times than I can count, the viral Starbucks video didn’t surprise me at all. However, my anger is directed not just at the cops but also at the cowardly Starbucks manager who made the call to the police to begin with. The men and women making these outrageous and unwarranted calls to police, which result in the harassment, unfair prosecution and even death of people of color, need to be found, publicly shamed and prosecuted to the full extent that the law allows.

No, I’m not talking about Dave Reiling, the man who reported an actual crime in Sacramento, Calif., that the police used as an excuse to shoot Stephon Clark in his own backyard. Calling the police to report an actual crime that the police overact to is not the citizen’s fault, no matter what color they are. I’m talking about the hundreds of cases—that we know about—every year, where white Americans actively and knowingly use the police as an extension of their personal bigotry yet face no consequences.

I’m talking about the white woman at the Red Roof Inn outside of Pittsburg who called the cops on me because I disputed the charges on my bill and asked to speak to a manager. I’m talking about the white woman who called the cops on me last year even though she knew I was walking with political canvassers for Jon Ossoff’s congressional campaign in North Atlanta. I’m talking about the police officer who followed me behind my house in Hiram, Ohio, asking where I lived because he’d “gotten some calls about robberies.”

In each and every single one of these instances, a white person used the cops as their personal racism valets, and I was the one getting served. In each of these instances, I could have been arrested, beat up or worse based on nothing more than the word of a white person whom I made uncomfortable. As sick as this all is, I still consider myself lucky.

Tamir Rice was killed at the tender age of 12, because a man who admitted tospending the afternoon drinking called 911 to report a “juvenile” that was probably carrying a “fake” gun. Constance Hollinger, the 911 dispatcher, who failed to deliver that information to the cops, got an eight-day suspension but kept her job, and there was no investigation into the caller. Tamir Rice is still dead.

Then there’s Ronald T. Ritchie, who told 911 that John Crawford III was running around Walmart “menacing children” with a shotgun. Crawford, holding a BB gun—sold at Walmart—in the open carry state of Ohio, was shot and killed by police. Despite clear evidence that Ritchie lied to the 911 dispatcher, which is a crime, no charges were filed against him.

You can get arrested for pulling a fire alarm, making fake bomb threats andmaking false claims of an alien invasion—why not a false police report that results in death? We should be pushing for prosecution against these callers just as much as the cops who pull the trigger.

That’s why I knew Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson’s statement on the Philadelphia incident was trash: “Our store manager never intended for these men to be arrested and this should never have escalated the way it did ...”

Either Johnson is lying or hasn’t been white in America as long as I’ve been black in America. Calling the police is the epitome of escalation, and calling the police on black people for noncrimes is a step away from asking for a tax-funded beatdown, if not an execution. That Starbucks manager didn’t call the police in the hopes that they’d politely ask two black customers to buy a latte or leave, just like the angry woman in front of my apartment wasn’t threatening to call the cops just to get her boyfriend to listen to her. The intent of these actions is to remind black people that the ultimate consequence of discomforting white people—let alone angering them—could be death.

As horrible as the realities of American policing can be for black America, we can’t ever forget that there are even worse people out there. They’re peering out from the curtains of their house, information kiosks and “liberal” coffee counters, surreptitiously dialing their phones, whispering the exaggerations and Trumped-up fears that make America’s violent policing possible.
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acroyal said:
Unless I misinterpreted, this is EXTRA f’d up. What did they say when they stopped you and what did the other people that stopped say?
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The door person stopped and said i need to show my memebr card . i was like they didnt . silence . i said im with them for a competition walk ...this is done by all grocery stores... The door person was like let me get the manager . waited about 10 minutes of nothing . my boss and team didnt wait for me so i dipped
Mind you were we dressed buainess casual and i was still the only one.
My boss at the time called me later to ask what happened
 
Starbucks? I BEEN ready to boycott America. France looking good but my bag isn't.

But let umar Johnson tell it, there's no place African Americans can go to escape racism.
 
the qbz said:
The door person stopped and said i need to show my memebr card . i was like they didnt . silence . i said im with them for a competition walk ...this is done by all grocery stores... The door person was like let me get the manager . waited about 10 minutes of nothing . my boss and team didnt wait for me so i dipped
Mind you were we dressed buainess casual and i was still the only one.
My boss at the time called me later to ask what happened
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Wow this is angering. But let some tell it, and there’s “no such thing” as white privilege. **** really boils my blood.
 
Starbucks obviously has under qualified managers, and they should reassess their business model. I remember last year there was that issue with a store manager in NY yelling at a customer over a cookie straw or something.....Anyway, look for Starbucks to start looking at paying managers more in an effort to increase talent fir their roles. This could cost them millions.
 
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Don't think I've ever been inside a Starbucks.

Had no idea that you need a code to use the restroom.

Are all Starbucks restrooms locked?
 
AEA18 said:
Don't think I've ever been inside a Starbucks.

Had no idea that you need a code to use the restroom.

Are all Starbucks restrooms locked?
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Some places with high foot traffic will have bathroom doors with a code. Even McDonald's, burger King, chipotle in NYC have codes bathroom codes on the recipt. Which is kinda dumb to go ask someone at the register when you can wait till someone comes out the bathroom and hold/prop the door open.
 
AEA18 said:
Don't think I've ever been inside a Starbucks.

Had no idea that you need a code to use the restroom.

Are all Starbucks restrooms locked?
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I’ve been in one b4 but didn’t try to use the restroom so I’m wondering this as well
 
vood99 said:
Starbucks needs to be boycotted for their overpriced trash. Over here in Toronto, Canada their coffee is 2.5-3X the price of their competitors.

Consumers need to stick it them, then they won't get to pick and choose who they serve. :smh:
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Ok cool
So quick question
Do the Starbucks inside of like target
Or my local grocery stores count
Or we just talking stand alone Starbucks
Or we including all
I’m down for whatever
Just tryna get clarification
 
Mr Dink said:
Most Starbucks here have codes to the bathroom so homeless people can't just go inside and use it.
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I was in a Starbucks in Houston, Texas last week. Bunch of homeless dudes in there lounging and using the bathroom.
nawghtyhare said:
Ok cool
So quick question
Do the Starbucks inside of like target
Or my local grocery stores count
Or we just talking stand alone Starbucks
Or we including all
I’m down for whatever
Just tryna get clarification
Click to expand...

Dang no hook, or 2nd verse?
 
Mr Dink said:
Most Starbucks here have codes to the bathroom so homeless people can't just go inside and use it.
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I noticed this.. homeless ppl be doing all types of stuff like sleeping in the bathroom. Also teens tagging the bathroom making it look like s****

Ppl doin stupid things like s*** in the urinal or scratch the mirror up, flood the toilets/urinals up
 
Iono, me as a manager, no matter what race you are, if you didn't buy ****, you're not using my bathroom.
 
Nujabez said:
I noticed this.. homeless ppl be doing all types of stuff like sleeping in the bathroom. Also teens tagging the bathroom making it look like s****

Ppl doin stupid things like s*** in the urinal or scratch the mirror up, flood the toilets/urinals up
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yall giving another version of
white folks do to black folks on the regular
well tariq did this
or tyrone did that
so what?
a black dude asking to use the bathroom
is the equivalent of a bum sleeping
in a bathroom???
i doubt they looked like they were going to sleep in the bathroom
also doubt
they looked like they were gonna shoot dope in the bathroom
 
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