http://fortune.com/2015/03/16/starbucks-baristas-race-talk/

CEO Howard Schultz is encouraging his employees to bring up the hot-button issue — his latest foray into controversial topics.

Starbucks SBUX 0.16% CEO Howard Schultz has never shied away from involving his company in controversial debates, whether those debates are about same-sex marriage, or gun control, or U.S. government gridlock.

But the executive, who oversees a coffee empire with 4,700 U.S. stores, has now taken on arguably the most polarizing political debate in the United States: race relations.

Starbucks published a full page ad in the New York Times on Sunday — a stark, black, page with a tiny caption “Shall We Overcome?” in the middle, and the words “RaceTogether” with the company logo, on the bottom right. The ad, along with a similar one on Monday in USA Today, is part of an initiative launched this week by the coffee store chain to stimulate conversation and debate about the race in America by getting employees to engage with customers about the perennially hot button subject.

Beginning on Monday, Starbucks baristas will have the option as they serve customers to hand cups on which they’ve handwritten the words “Race Together” and start a discussion about race. This Friday, each copy of USA Today — which has a daily print circulation of almost 2 million and is a partner of Starbucks in this initiative — will have the first of a series of insert with information about race relations, including a variety of perspectives on race. Starbucks coffee shops will also stock the insert.

In a video addressing Starbucks’ nearly 200,000 workers, 40% of whom are members of a racial minority, Schultz dismissed the notion that race was too hot a topic business-wise for Starbucks to tackle.

“I reject that. I reject that completely,” he said in the video address. “It’s an emotional issue. But it is so vitally important to the country,” he continued, pointing to that the United States is “so much better” than what the current state of race relations portray it to be.

The initiative follows several months of consultations with employees that started in December, in part as a result of protests that roiled several U.S. cities after grand juries declined to indict white police officers in the killings of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., near St. Louis, and 43-year-old Eric Garner in Staten Island, N.Y.

Schultz has met with almost 2,000 Starbucks employees since then in cities hit most directly by racial tension and anti-police brutality protests in the last year, including Oakland, St. Louis, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Seattle, where Starbucks is based. Cognizant of what a powder keg the issue of race is, Starbucks says its baristas will be under no obligation to engage with customers on the topic. The goal is simply to foster discussion and an exchange of ideas.

The potential exists for arguments to break out (not for nothing this topic is the third rail of U.S. politics), and some may fairly question any move that could potentially slow in-store service. But Schultz has never been a wallflower when it comes to political debates and social activism. In 2013, he led a petition-based push urging Washington politicians to end the federal government shutdown. That year, he also wrote an open letter asking gun owners to refrain from bringing their guns into stores even they were allowed. Two years earlier, Starbucks launched a fund, fueled by the sale of $5 bracelets, to spur U.S. job creation. The company has also pledged to hire 10,000 veterans and military spouses over a five-year period.

And he has also not been shy to slam critics of Starbucks’ or his political stances, including shareholders. Two years ago, after an investor at its annual shareholder meeting said the company’s support for a marriage equality bill in Washington state had hurt sales after a boycott by an advocacy group, Schultz invited him to sell his Starbucks shares if he felt he could find another stock with as a high a return rate.

Schulz will discuss Starbucks’ “Race Together” initiative at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday.

Hoe is it even possible. They're busy as shit.

But i won't edit, for comedy sake

.

I feel like that joke was around before DvMero right?

FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT.

either badly or very badly. whoever thought of this should just preemptively fire themselves now.

Bad idea jeans. (c) SNL

than encouraging millions of complete strangers to have conversations about race relations. over hot coffee.

but they're gonna want to discuss race relations first thing in the morning.
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGHT.

what the fuck is going on

but not from a fucking barista

... IF YOU DON'T FUCKING SERVE ME MY DOUBLE CARAMEL FRAUPAUCCINO ON ICE WITH A SPRITZ OF LEMON THEN HEADS WILL ROLL MISSY.

Seriously, this is going to go so poorly it's not even funny. Never talk about race with insulated people.

What are they gonna say?:

Good morning you gentrifying hipster honky, how does it feel to price out long term residents?


*****************************************
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de6VnExhelQ

Presenting Collective Peace.

https://www.facebook.com/CollectivePeace

no fucks will be given.

Since I moved from Detroit in 2009 they closed the two locations they had. Jefferson and The Millender Center.

The corner of Mack and Woodward

Eight Mile and Woodward (where the Meijer is)

Near Campus Martius in the Ernst & Young building (on the right side
of the roundabout)

*****************************************
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de6VnExhelQ

Presenting Collective Peace.

https://www.facebook.com/CollectivePeace

The other two are new. Glad to see they opened up more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF1NUposXVQ&t=150
____

TWITTER : Heinz21st

IG : H_N_Z

as i read this i saw ppl (Starbucks employees, mostly) getting hot coffee thrown on them during heated race discussions.

no, thanks.

Oh you wanna talk about race, huh?!

Lets talk reparations first...

Starting with this mocha frap.

I got some warm blanched milk from them a few weeks ago. luckily my girlfriend works there so she had me come around and get a new cup of coffee after i texted her. but if i had paid $4 for that cup i would have never had gone back there again.

█▆▇▅▇█▇▆▄▁▃
Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." � Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/pop-cafe-spurs-dialogue-racially-charged-drink-names-article-1.2049204

...saying that I'd rather have the *other* kind of hot tall blonde. He laughed with me.

So... I've already discussed race with my barista at Starbucks.

>

Ebony & Ivory
What's Going on
Black or White...

"Do you mean Venti Americano, sir?"
DON'T TREAD ON ME! I DON'T NEED TO PRESS 1 FOR ENGLISH! GIMME A DANG LARGE MURRKAN

About Race Issues


http://www.mediaite.com/online/starbucks-svp-deletes-twitter-account-after-actual-minorities-ask-him-about-race-issues/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/03/17/the-snarkiest-tweets-about-starbucks-race-together-campaign/

no way am I talking with a barista about race relations before I have had my morning fix.

That way if during your AM barista race discussions you refer to someone as Black, Mexican or otherwise give you a quizzical look and a 'did you mean a Venti?' reply like when you order a large coffee.

Since 1976

When is the last time twitter was used to promote love/good? The Ice bucket water challenge?

thats how lost in the sauce i am here.

Yeah good luck with that Starbucks I'm looking forward to lower share prices though.

opinions on race relations. and that may be well and good, but that doesn't meant that the baristas want the public's opinion on race relations. you can't force those kinds of things. and as someone who works in an environment like that, its much better when those sorts of things are organic instead of forced.
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it's true what they say...people are strange, when you're strangers.

not compassionate....only polite.

I am not like you at all and i cannot pretend.

it's Onion level ridiculous.

to get discounts. dude must have some guilt to even think this is gonna make a difference.