Remember when Starbucks solved racism by instructing baristas to write #RaceTogether on customers’ cups? That was a really good idea, and it was only the beginning. Now Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is fighting back against President Trump’s “Muslim ban,” AKA “Being mean to people from countries I’m suddenly pretending to care about because my team lost the election.”
Gianluca Mezzofiore, Mashable:
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has sent an open letter to staff pledging to hire 10,000 refugees over the next five years in response to Donald Trump’s immigration ban…
Schultz condemned the president’s order saying it caused “confusion, surprise and opposition”. He said recruitment will start in the United States and focus on immigrants “who have served with US troops as interpreters and support personnel”…
Schultz is the latest US corporate chief to slam Trump’s ban. Silicon Valley giants, tech and entertainment companies such as Apple, Uber, Netflix, Twitter, Google and Facebook have made public statements against it.
Well, these guys are all Democrats and they’re furious that Trump won (or they know better than to say otherwise), so it’s no surprise that they oppose this and they want everybody to know. Never mind that it’s not actually a Muslim ban and it’s not unprecedented. As always, this isn’t about reality. It’s about the feelings of liberals. They lost, they’re mad about it, and they need an outlet for their futile rage. If it wasn’t the so-called “Muslim ban,” it’d be something else. And if it wasn’t Trump, they’d be screaming at any other Republican who dared to sit behind the Resolute desk.
(I’m just about protested out, you know? Go ahead, run to your nearest airport and hold up signs. Yell and scream. It doesn’t solve anything, and actually just makes things worse. But at least you’re doing something, right?)
Starbucks can hire anybody they want, of course. But if Schultz really wants to change things, this announcement falls short. If he hires 10,000 refugees, that will mean one refugee for every 2.5 Starbucks stores. I’m no mathematician, but that doesn’t even qualify as a half-measure. Why not make it 25,000 refugees? Why shouldn’t every single Starbucks store get one?
If you go in for your morning latte and don’t see a refugee working there, you’d better give them a piece of your mind. Where’s your neighborhood refugee to make you feel better about yourself when you buy an overpriced cup of mediocre coffee? Where’s your reminder that Trump is bad and you’re protesting him by wasting money on luxury brands? Where’s your signal of virtue?
After all, this is America.
P.S. Once again, I’m ahead of the curve: #BoycottStarbucks is trending on Twitter.
