A Starbucks store at New Delhi airport, Credit: AKS.9955 /Wikimedia Commons
Each time, I enter a Starbucks cafe, I get the feeling that an array of irresistible coffee and tea flavors reflects the store’s intrinsic value as a place of variety, serving customers from all communities like a bustling microcosm of American diversity.
Thousands of regulars to Starbucks come away with a similar takeaway from their networking experiences and culture conversations.
It was for these reasons that the April 12 incident at a Philadelphia Starbucks– which led to arrest of two black men for sitting in the store without a purchase – came as a shock to those who believe in cohabiting. The two men were also denied the use of restroom before the store manager called the police. Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson said they were waiting for a business associate, and had been at the store for less than 10 minutes when police responded to the manager’s call.
The incident sparked weeks of protest and some soul-searching among Starbucks leaders.
Starbucks began with ousting the manager and on Tuesday took the unprecedented step to close its more than 8000 stores nationwide for a four-hour “learning session” that would enable the chain’s 175,000 partners to have a conversation on racial bias.
“This was a foundational step in renewing Starbucks as a place where ALL people feel welcome. Starbucks partners shared life experiences, heard from others, listened to experts on bias and racial anxiety, reflecting on the realities of bias in our society and talking about how all of us can work together to create public spaces where everyone feels like they belong,” the company said on its website.
The session was named “The Third Place: Our Commitment Renewed,” representing Starbucks Chairman, Howard Schultz’s approach, which sees each café a “third place”- a conducive venue in addition to home and work, where people may interact culturally.
The Starbucks’ learning session has been welcomed but it remains to be seen how its employees will react to similar situations in the future. The coffee chain is not the only one to reform its rules. Several other companies and media outlets have done so. In the latest instance, ABC channel has cancelled Roseanne Barr’s show after the actress tweeted that Valerie Jarett, a former African-American aide to President Barack Obama, was a “child” of the “Muslim Brotherhood” and made a reference to the”Planet of the Apes.”
These examples also prompt a look at contrasts that have been cause of unease among diverse communities. While Starbucks conversation is appreciable, it is just one step out of the many that the society and the country must take to realize the power of American diversity. Recent FBI reports say there has been a rise in anti-Muslim anti-Semitic incidents. Several groups try to stoke xenophobic views about immigrants, challenging American ideals of inclusiveness and pluralism on the basis of equality and liberty for all.
But America’s recent economic success story clearly contradicts perceptions that immigrants have harmed the country by taking jobs away from native Americans.
Starbucks Coffee in Pike Place Market, Seattle, Washington Photo: ,Diego Delso/Wikimedia Commons
Just look at the massive gains the arrival of immigrants – both labor and the best and the brightest – have brought to America. The new American economy has been largely shaped by a wave of immigrants that has brought top IT professionals, entrepreneurs, academics and scientists into the United States since the early 1990s. Today, with eight of the top 14 tech giants being American, the U.S. has a huge advantage over its international competitors.
Little wonder that amid anti-immigrant rhetoric of the 2016 election season, six out of seven American Nobel Prize winners that year were immigrants.
The U.S. cannot afford to ignore these realities for long, especially in the face of emergence of new economic and political powers that are following America’s lead in taking in the best talent from around the world.
Nor can the U.S. turn its back on the suffering people including refugees. For millions of people outside of the United State’ largesse is quintessential to Americanism.
Let’s focus on another pressing matter of the moment. President Donald Trump should take steps to mitigate suffering of migrant children on the Mexican border and address their heartrending predicament. His political messaging on the issue will be very important. Both immigration and alleviation of the suffering of migrants are national security interests of the United States.
