After an outcry over the inclusion of the Anti-Defamation League as a lead member of Starbuck’s anti-racism training, the ubiquitous coffee shop backed down, as Marjorie Cohn reports for Consortium News.
By Marjorie Cohn Special to Consortium News
After a video of the arrest of two African-American men sitting in Starbucks without buying anything went viral, Starbucks scheduled anti-racism training. But their inclusion of the Anti-Defamation League in the training provoked another outcry and Starbucks capitulated.
On April 12, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson were arrested for trespassing at a Philadelphia Starbucks. A manager called the police because the men, who had been in the coffee shop for just a few minutes, hadn’t bought anything.
Melissa DePino, a Starbucks customer who recorded the video of the arrest that went viral on social media, said, “These guys never raised their voices. They never did anything remotely aggressive . . . I was sitting close to where they were. Very close. They were not doing anything. They weren’t.”
In an attempt to avert a public relations disaster after the racist incident became public, Starbucks announced it would close most of its 8,000 locations on May 29 for racial bias training.
But, adding insult to injury, Starbucks included the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), with its notorious history of racism, as a primary participant in the anti-racism training.
Community outrage at ADL’s central role in the training was swift and strong. Starbucks demoted ADL to a consulting role, and named representatives of three prominent African-American-led civil rights organizations to lead the training.
ADL: “Anti-Muslim, Anti-Palestinian, Anti-Black and Anti-Activist”
After Starbucks had initially announced the composition of its anti-racism trainers, there was a powerful backlash in the civil rights community against ADL’s leadership role.
Tamika Mallory: Boycott Starbucks
Tamika Mallory, co-chair of the Women’s March and Black Lives Matter, called for a boycott of Starbucks. Mallory, a nationally prominent organizer for gun control and women’s rights, and against police violence, is the 2018 recipient of the Coretta Scott King Legacy Award.
Mallory tweeted that Starbucks “is NOT serious about doing right by BLACK people!” because of the prominent role it gave ADL, which “is CONSTANTLY attacking black and brown people.”
Cat Brooks, co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project, said she agrees with Mallory. “You can’t be a piece of an anti-bias training when you openly support a racist, oppressive and brutal colonization of Palestine.”
Linda Sarsour, also co-chair of the Women’s March, wrote on Facebook that ADL is “an anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian organization that peddles Islamophobia and attacks America’s prominent Muslim orgs and activists and supports/sponsors US law enforcement agents to travel and get trained by Israeli military.”
Palestinian-American comedian, activist and professor Amer Zahr grew up in Philadelphia. Zahr told this reporter that ADL and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) “were the architects of the anti-Arab and anti-Islamic industry in America for the last 50 to 60 years.”
Zahr said that “welcoming groups like ADL into the family of civil rights organizations . . . is a real slap in the face to Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims who have been the victims of ADL rhetoric for decades.”
Asked to respond to Starbucks’ decision, a spokesman for the ADL who was contacted refused to comment.
Spied on Leftists
ADL was established in 1913 “to defend Jews, and later other minority groups from discrimination,” Robert I. Friedman wrote in 1993. It led the struggle against the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party, and supported the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. But in the late 1940s, “ADL spied on leftists and Communists, and shared investigative files with the House Committee on Un-American Activities and the FBI. The ADL swung sharply to the right during the Reagan administration, becoming a bastion of neoconservatism.”
ADL’s logo in the 1940s
In 1993, the San Francisco District Attorney released 700 pages of documents that implicated ADL in an extensive spying operation against US citizens who opposed Israel’s policies in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza, and apartheid in South Africa. ADL then passed the information to Israel’s Mossad and South African intelligence.
The documents revealed that ADL provided information to South African intelligence shortly before Chris Hani was assassinated. Hani was a leader of the African National Congress, which led the struggle against apartheid, and was considered the successor to Nelson Mandela. Hani was killed soon after returning from a speaking tour in California, where he had been spied on by ADL.
Fifteen civil rights groups and seven individuals filed a federal lawsuit against ADL in 1993 for violation of their civil and privacy rights by spying on them. Six years later, federal Judge Richard Paez issued an injunction permanently enjoining ADL from illegally spying on Arab-American and other civil rights organizations.
But ADL’s hateful activities continue. Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) executive director Rebecca Vilkomerson said in an interview with Consortium News that ADL, which “calls itself a civil rights organization, is in truth playing a really damaging role in a number of communities.” She noted that ADL is “promoting and complicit in anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian, anti-Black and anti-activist campaigns.”
Vilkomerson criticized ADL for honoring the St. Louis Police Department one year after their officers killed Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American man in Ferguson.
Arielle Klagsbrun of the St. Louis JVP explained, “The ADL’s side is the side of police. As someone whose family members are Holocaust survivors, the lessons I learned from the Holocaust for today are that black lives matter and that we must stand against systemic racism.”
Soffiyah Elijah, executive director of Alliance of Families for Justice, said in an interview that if one were crafting a training program against anti-Semitism, you “wouldn’t go to the NAACP for sensitivity training,” adding, “as a Black person, I found [the inclusion of ADL] further insulting.”
Vilkomerson called ADL “one of the biggest purveyors” of exchanges between Israeli and US law enforcement, where American police go to Israel to learn “counter-terrorism” measures to be applied here. That encompasses “racial profiling, spying, mass surveillance and collective punishment.”
Vilkomerson: “Excellent outcome.”
But “US police don’t really need a lesson in racism,” Vilkomerson added.
Starbucks Backs Down After Anti-ADL Backlash
JVP circulated a petition against inclusion of ADL, which garnered 11,000 signatures in 72 hours. According to Vilkomerson, the “enormous outpouring” on Twitter of opposition to ADL’s initial central role in the training and the “week-long pushback,” including JVP’s petition, led Starbucks to back down.
Starbucks issued a statement identifying the leaders of the training as: Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of Equal Justice Initiative; Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund; and Heather McGhee, president of Demos, a civil rights organization.
The three leaders “will provide advice, counsel, connections to other experts, and recommendations to Starbucks for the May 29 training, which will launch the multiphase effort for the company.”
Starbucks said it “will also consult with a diverse array of organizations and civil rights experts – including The Anti-Defamation League, The Leadership on Civil and Human Rights, UnidosUS, Muslim Advocates, and representatives of LGBTQ groups, religious groups, people with disabilities, and others.”
JVP’s deputy director Ari Wohlfeiler stated in a press release:
Starbucks will never say it publicly, but because of the huge public outcry about the ADL’s unyielding pro-Israel position, their refusal to condemn police violence, their incessant Islamophobia, and the convergence of all those retrograde positions in their active facilitation of US/Israeli police exchange programs, Starbucks had no choice but to demote them.
It was an “excellent outcome,” Vilkomerson said.
Marjorie Cohn http://marjoriecohn.com/is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former president of the National Lawyers Guild, deputy secretary general of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and an advisory board member of Veterans for Peace. The second, updated edition of her book, Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues, was recently published.
Ever since the use of the word “niggardly” became problematic, I have wondered where the semantic police would strike next. Now that Black Lives Matter has taken control of Starbucks, I wonder as to how long it will be before “cafe latte” will become verboten, and their coffee will be served only as black …
At the behest of Black Lives Matter, Starbucks has dropped the Anti Defamation League from participating in the company’s retraining programs. BLM says the ADL is racist ….Given that the company is setting aside a day of “re-education” concerning “subconscious racism”, I assume the good folks on the coffee plantation will likewise sponsor a Gulag session for subconscious antisemitism…
This is a disgraceful excuse for objective reporting.
To all those racists putting down white people I only have one thing to say in my defense: you are fucking welcome.
I am having such a schadenfreude-fest watching this schnit go down on StarofDavidSucks. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch. Don’t forget, they’re on the BDS list. Friends don’t let friends piss their money away on burnt Zionist swill.
The ADL was formed in the wake of the Leo Frank case where a local B’nai B’rith leader (Leo Frank) was convicted of murdering a white teenager who worked in his factory. Leo Frank’s defense strategy was to blame a black janitor for the murder. The all-white jury took the word of the black man over the jew. In those days (1913) jews were generally well regarded in the south. The Secretary of the Treasury for the Confederacy was a jew, for example. Southern hostilities toward jews were not significant until jews became heavily involved in the civil rights movement although they had helped found the NAACP a few years earlier.
The agents of Rothchild or the agents of the bank are those he financed the secession of the South.
The ADL spy ring was wider than described in this article. The operation included spying on labor unions, bookstores, television stations and politicians. One of the operatives in the operation was a cop of the SFPD “red squad”. When he became a target of investigators he disappeared abroad, to the Philippines. Found in his police locker were pictures of people blindfolded and tied to chairs. This cop had had temporary duty assignments with the CIA in North Africa and Latin America.
The San Francisco ACLU issued a report on it, pointing to the privatization of domestic spying and arising from the 1984 Democratic Convention in San Francisco.
Screw Starbucks just stop going to their business they will always undercover racist
Warch out Anne, you might be tagged an anti semitic.
That smear is so last century. If anything, Anne is probably a pro-Semite — like me. I support the Palestinians.
The ADL need not be involved with Starbucks, or any American organization for that matter. Having said that, the Philly Starbucks incident was 100% the fault of the intransigent patron perpetrators. They were asked to leave, were defiant, so the police were called. They were arrogant and defiant with the police as well. They were arrested. End of story.
Oh, so you were there?
Joe, Do you have evidense for this? Seems like classic blaming the victim, and misses the point that the police should’ve never been called in the first place. And that they probably wouldn’t have been called except for being black in the wrong place with the wrong manager on duty. And if the police came to question me because I was waiting for a friend in Starbucks and asked to use the restroom (something I have done many times) it would be very difficult not to get an attitude. In short if they were being a**holes, I understand. I have worked in customer service for over 20 years, including many restaurants and there are simply much better ways of dealing with difficult customers (assuming you are right). White privelege allows me to be a difficult/defiant/arrogant customer without being asked to leave or getting arrested. Make sense?
I summed it up. There are multiple sources to check, including a statement by the Philly police commissioner. As for “white priviledge’, it is simply another buzzword du jour that everybody has been bullish*tted with. As for your comment about the police not being called, that is not your decision. The decision was made by Starbuck’s management to involve the police. They obviously had a reason.
Yeah–garden variety racism. That’s why this “training” is necessary in these great United States. Very sad.
Philly Police: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRHkAXiqfVQ
Good, reasonable, cogent assessment by a black man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoUv-qSi9yk
“As for your comment about the police not being called, that is not your decision.” Is it your position that we should only express opinions about decisions that are our own? If so there would be no comments here. And only a white man who has the privelege of not having to think about his own race would say that white privilege is “bullshit.” I’m not saying that we need to be apologetic about being white, but it is a fact of my experience that when I walk into a Starbucks and want to use the restroom, I am allowed with smile, and probably because the assumption is that I am coming back to buy something. It is a privelege I enjoy because of my whiteness. A privilege that these nicely dressed, successful looking black men were not. About the police video, I don’t hear alot of people saying the police did anything wrong. Again the fault lies with the manager who should’ve tapped into customer service skills here…”Do you gentlemen plan to purchase anything today?…Oh you are waiting for your friend? I understand, please feel free to use the restroom. Can I give you a free beverage for questioning you when it is not my usual practice to do so for EVERYONE who uses are restroom prior to purchasing something?”
Homer-you REALLY need to get rid of your “white man” nonsense. You stated that YOU did not feel that the police should have been involved. I understand that is YOUR opinion, however, it is irrelevant. Your conjecture, and that is all it is, is irrelevant. On the other hand, here are a few facts, and you can use them to add more conjecture, and more “what ought to be’s”, instead of reality. The Philly location is a very busy one. Fact. Seating will therefore be at a premium. Fact. Non paying customers are NOT a priority. In Philly, there is a HUGE problem with panhandling, vagrancy, and such, primarily perpetrated by blacks. Fact. I am sure this was all factored in to the decision by Starbucks employees. As it should have been. Personally, I am extremely proud of being White. I have zero guilt, as I have done nothing to affect anybody else. All I did was work. And I worked with many Black people who would find your ‘platform’ ridiculous. Reading your ludicrous screeds makes me embarrassed for you if you are indeed White. As we said in da Bronx, grow some cajones. Your outlook is typical left/liberal “ought to be”, “should be” world folly. And you are not even on base because you employ only suppositions. The world simply does not work that way. Trust me. I am done with this, because you, in my opinion, get more silly with each post.
racists like you get away with it because you are white…something you cant get that pea brain of your to grasp.
you are the type of person who doesnt even believe racism exists…but you wont admit that is your belief.
nothing can be gained by confronting you because you hide behind a screen name supporting racism while smiling in public.
you only overcome your fear sitting in front of your computer where you can hide.
Johanna- you might want to get used to it, because the vast majority of White people are too busy working, have not done a damn thing to any minority, are proud to be White, and laugh at the nonsense that you and your ilk proffer. We really don’t care. You can wallow for the rest of your life in your BS, but one day, you will wake up, realize 20 years have passed, and you are still whining about things you can’t control, and in fact, were not even the fault of your accused oppressors. I certainly believe ‘racism’ exists, but it exists on more planes than you are capable of comprehending, otherwise you might mention all of the entitlements, platforms, programs, skewed admissions/preferential treatment into schools and jobs, etc. that are offered to minorities and women. One might characterize that as ‘racism’ as well, but your “only I am right” attitude will preclude you from seeing that perspective. In summation, (working) Whites don’t give a crap about SJW nonsense. We are too busy supporting ourselves as well as the freeloaders, under underachievers, and slackers.
Johanna- Agreed this man is coward and would never say any of this to a black person’s face.
Joe, You are “extremely proud” of being white. Why? You didn’t do anything to be white. That just smacks of white supremacy. Well obviously speaking out for what “ought to be” works, hence the corrective action Starbucks is taking by responding to the outcry over how they wrongly handled this incident. And these gentlemen had every intention of paying for something, were waiting for a friend prior to doing so. Hey if someone knows for a fact that it is the policy of this Starbucks that everyone must buy something PRIOR to using the restroom, then I am fine with what happened. It wouldn’t make sense though, because I can’t tell you how many times I walked into a Starbucks, there is a long line, and I have to go, so I go up to the counter get the code/use the restroom and come back to get into line and it’s no problem. Also its good business because otherwise I might just go somewhere else. As for your descent into anger and belligerence, I really don’t even need to respond. I am embarrassed for you. Your problem is you can’t take others point of view. You have it ALL figured out.
Homer, Nancy, and Johanna- I dedicate this to your “White Guilt”. Might do good to view this, along with the other two links I provided. More proof of what I have been saying. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt03s09t5pI
You don’t have to be “guilty” to recognize the reality of white privilege. And the only one whining here is you. You are so scared of losing “your” country it has made you mad and incapable of introspection. As for your “entitlements,” how bout we get rid of tax breaks for the wealthy and subsidies for big oil and then go after the “entitlements” which btw is bullshit Republican speak word for things we all have collectively paid for. You people always hate these things until you retire, then you will be clenching to your medicare and social security, and “just try and take from me…I worked for this!” And I am glad you said your are from the Bronx. I am from Texas (and about my cajones, everything’s big in Texas), moved up north 15 years ago, and I have noticed that racism up here is worse (at least here in PA)…that’s right, worse than the “racist” south. I think it is because racism isn’t seen as a problem here, and nobody thinks they are racist. White people here say “I am not a racist or anything but…” and then they say their racist comment. In the south there are plenty of racist rednecks but they at least know it and will tell you exactly why they’re racist.
So I guess what I am saying Joe, is come ‘on out of the closet, embrace your racism…it’s who you are. And I love you anyway. ;)
Homer- I AM retired. I finished at 47. Why so young? Because I worked 2 jobs, served overseas for 7 (would have been 8 but got injured). I broke my a**, and still saw the world. Still do. You still have not pointed out how I am “racist”. Show me my “racist” comment. Cut and paste it, and let’s go. And you will not, because all I am doing is presenting a perspective that you will not or cannot grasp. I gave you multiple possibilities to explain why this particular Starbucks incident went down like it did. You refuse to entertain those. You will not comment on the germane video links. You go off into some netherland of utopian dialectic, talking about big business, etc. I do not deny that, but it has nothing to do with the Starbucks incident. I gave facts, and reasonable scenarios. You are talking conjecture. I summed up succinctly why this may have been legitimate at the Philly location (and it is 100% accurate). You ignore that. Two videos are the perspective of a black man, and you can’t comment on that. Every black guy I know laughs at white SJW’s pretending to understand ‘racism’. They are laughing at you, pal. I am not kidding.. Any black person who is not on drugs or a militant is laughing at these young, SJW, identity ‘politicians’. The older (maybe even 30ish, and above) black people that I know (plenty) are actually getting tired of your BS. I am going to give you a quick story to highlight your misconceptions: Yesterday, I was walking downtown, and saw a friend of mine. Black guy, 31. I said “hey, enjoying the weather?” (nice, sunny day). He replies: “yeah, but I got too much of a tan in that sun”. Verbatim. That is how we really are. Is HE racist? Maybe a self hating black? You think? In any event, my advice is to stick to your local sphere, make a difference there. You are NOT going to change the ‘system’ with utopian, feel good rubbish. You will frustrate yourself. Because nothing will change the way you want it to. As far as “white privilege’, and ‘white issues’, you are probably working for one (or will be), so it might be wise to know and appreciate who is signing your paycheck. I will be waiting for you to actually cut and past my “racist” comment, and a quick sentence or two as to why it is “racist”. Then we can actually have a cogent debate.
Joe, How can I have a cogent debate when you are so arrogant that you assume people who don’t agree with you “Can’t comprehend….” Get over yourself. We comprehend….it is just so absurd. And Google up a different word other than conjecture you pseudo intellectual. And speaking of your favorite word, how many assumptions have you made about me, where I am coming from, and what experience i may or may not have with racism. You just have a canned rant you unleash on anyone that dares acknowledge the ongoing systemic racism that exists towards blacks, that you picked up from some video or otherwise are just word repeating. I won’t point out the several (although subtle) times you have exposed your covert racism, because you will just justify it and find a video of an Uncle Tom to agree with you. So I will let you have the last word…it’s point less trying to talk to dumb arrogant right wing blowhards that think they know something. I bet it never even occured to you that I disagree with how identity politics is exploited to get blacks and women to support Dems. Again “conjecture.” Go ahead…I’m done.
Homer- since you are unable to address anything I ask, and are unable to even elucidate your position, I bid you a good day. You are an imbecile. The only reason you call me a “pseudo intellectual” is because you are such an ignorant soul. Have fun, talk your nonsense, and if you think you and your liberal arts fags are going to gain any ground, have at it. I’ll be making $200K part time as a merc wiping up the street with you.
Haha!! Sorry can’t resist pointing out that you just revealed yet another prejudice you homophobe. Oh I bet now you’ll tell me how gay men actually like when straight men use the word “fags”…with a video of gay man stating as such as your “evidence.” Btw you are straight aren’t you Joe?? Anyway, you just basically proved me right sucker, get you a little mad. and all that repressed hate starts erupting out of you. Ok now really this time I’m done…you just make it so easy. Go ahead call me whatever…your words mean crap. I flat out don’t respect bigots.
Literally every party involved that’s gone on the record has contradicted you. The company admits it was wrong. Even the chief of police walked back his own support of the arrest and said the situation was handled terribly.
You’re actually arguing with the guilty parties that have admitted they were wrong. They’re trying to promote healing and you’re being deliberately divisive. What’s wrong with you?
Thanks, deschutes, for your post because i didn’t know the details of that Starbucks arrest, either, but it does show how we don’t get the whole story in too many events. And David G, Ferguson is a suburb of St. Louis.
But i still think the shocking point is training in “counterterrorism” tactics of American police being done in Israel. Israel is the biggest meddler in the US and is given a free pass, while the “Russia meddling” fake news story is still wasting our taxpayer money (Realist post). I read last week that doctors in Gaza were treating horrific fist sized wounds of Gaza protestors who got too close to the wall in the eyes of the IDF and got shot. The IDF used rubber bullets with actual bullets encased in them, imagine the damage to tissue done by that.
Just get a Starbucks coffee and you’ll feel better! (sarc)
The term “rubber bullet” is a euphemism to hide an ugly fact. They are always metal bullets(hopefully FMJ) covered in a 1mm thick rubber coating. At a muzzle velocity of 600feet/second they are as quiet and deadly as any subsonic round used for small game hunting. Such low velocities make for deep penetration in tissue.
There’s a video of the incident on Youtube. The black patron asked why he was told he couldn’t use the restroom unless he made a purchase. Moments later a white gentleman walked in without making a purchase and was given permission to use the room. When the black patron asked the staff why the double standard, she called the cops. The episode starts around 50 seconds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhkE6VmRkk0
Your video is in LA. Completely different location and circumstances.
Joe, you must be a teeRump voter.
I am a “teeRump” voter because I point out that the video has nothing to do with the subject incident? WTH are you talking about? I think Trump is an idiot, and a Trojan Horse for a more nefarious agenda, btw. Now, I worked with blacks my entire life. NEVER did I hear any one of them complain about ‘racism’. Ever. What I DID hear is many of them telling me that the black problems largely stem from their own community. But, then again, these were reasonable, informed people. Maybe you need to actually spend some time in the black community (good and bad) before you comment on this. I worked 27 years in Newark, NJ. I know what I am talking about. I saw every street in that city. I knew a hell of a lot of people, and I saw everything. I spent a lot of time in Brownsville Brooklyn (look it up). My Army buddy’s godmother lived in the Cooper projects there. A living Hell. She was a POOR, wonderful woman, who fed us all she had, which was “red eggs” (scrambled and ketchup). Honorable, happy woman. Had NOTHING. I experienced these people first had my whole life. This is why when whites (mostly young and ignorant) try to talk crap about this, my BS meter will go off in a second. My advice is to actually pick one of my points, and make your argument, not drift off into conjecture, and what you think should or should not be. That is how you debate/argue.
Joe, are you arguing for the full context of the video or are you lecturing us on how the “vast” majority of white people are working? For you to say than Black people are treated the same as White people in America is just a load of fertilizer.
I will get coffee at Starbucks when Israel gives back occupied land, and it’s sniper don’t shoot protesters. Hands Up…no coffee in mine officer…BOYCOTT STARBUCKS and Israel.
Adl and aipac should be branded terror organizations as they’ve never ever stopped spying for Israel. How many people have died due to there untold covert actions. I have never been to a Starbucks as corporate coffee and preying business practices are wrong as well.
Kudos Hawaii guy for boycotting Starbucks. As you say, it is totally corporate coffee. Not surprising that Starbucks management wanted the ADL to oversee the anti-racism training after the arrest of the two black guys sitting in a Starbucks.
The ADL and AIPAC are the enemies of black people and especially Muslims. I’ll bet people in these two organizations are quite pleased to see the ongoing killing of peaceful Palestinian demonstrators by IDF snipers. Fucking horrible organizations.
Deschutes- your final assessment is absolutely correct.
So, will the “willow” commentator (that you responded to) accept that the were spreading lies.
Wilfully and knowingly I’d say, otherwise why would “willow” reference a completely different situation.
Thanks for the additional info about the incident. It’s so easy to make snap judgements based on inadequate information. I do that. I did that. Good lesson not to do that. Wisdom waits for the whole story before commenting.
Especially when black and white actors are involved in an incident, we may jump to conclude racism was the only or major factor, when this is not always the case. It’s like when Jews may jump to conclude you are anti-Semitic if you criticize Israel. Not necessarily so.
Mike- part of the ‘New Left’, liberal paradigm is to condition people (especially Whites) to be guilted into the particular mindset that you describe. They have set the narrative that whenever there is an issue with Blacks (especially involving Whites) that the fault lies on the White side. It is and has been a perpetuation of victim and entitlement mentality, which, also, unfortunately, takes away responsibility for one’s actions. Good on you for your honesty.
I have never been stopped from using a toilet or asked to leave in similar facilities even if I didn’t buy anything. This looks like special case.
Thank you MA, and neither have I. In fact I must confess, in my job I drive alot and many times, I have stopped into a Starbucks, asked for the code, and used the restroom without buying a single thing. I think my friends above are missing the point.
These gentlemen should not have been asked to leave in the first place. When they were asked to leave, they knew it was wrong, and took a stand by staying seated. We have to understand that white privelege and the reality that identity politics effectively divides the proletariat are not mutually exclusive.
We live in a time in which systemic racism both exists, while being exploited by neoliberals to get liberals to support US hegemony if only they support BLM. it is how female liberals are so enraged that a warmonger like Killary is not the president. It is how Obama can wage war in seven countries, deport more immigrants than Trump ever will, suppress whistle blower protection/freedom of the press, greatly expand our nuclear arsenal, and fail to enact gun control, all while holding a Nobel Peace prize and being hailed as a liberal icon. He gets a pass because he is black. Just as Killary gets a pass from liberals because she is woman. And it isn’t (completely) their fault. I agree with Joe that they have been conditioned.
I think we will never break free of our shackles until we ALL recognize that race and gender are no longer the primary factors in determining who is being repressed….it is class. Poor is the New Black as I saw on a t-shirt recently (at an Urban Outfiitters). So I have alot more in common with a poor black man than I do with a rich white man, while still enjoying white privilege. A poor black man has more in commone with a middle class white man than he ever will with a rich black man. However it is in the interest of the elite oligarchs to keep him recenting me for my privlege and for me to resent him for always shaming me for my white privilege (that I never asked for). And then there is the fact that we never talk about. And every white man over knows what I’m talking about. How many times have you been falsely accused of being racist/sexist, especially in the work place? And when this happens nobody comes to your support for fear of also being so labeled. What would happen if I started a #MeToo for white men who have been falsely accused in the work place, which causes so much damage to your career? Then again nobody would join, afterall who wants to be associated with a club of unapologetic sexists and racists. ;)
We must all get over these grievances of race and gender and come together if we ever want to overturn the global coorporate repressive power structure. Easier said than done, when these grievances are all valid.
Well, MA I’m white and have very frequently been denied access to an establishment’s toilet unless I’ve bought something. Actually it is quite a common policy: want to use the restrooms? Buy something at the counter. it is understandable actually, because how very dirty restrooms can get from frequent customer use. At least of you have only paying customers use the loo, you are recovering the cost of having paid staff clean said loo on a regular basis. You got to understand restaurants and cafes are running a business, not a charity: they’re paying for the real estate, the staff, the food and drink, etc it really adds up fast–and if some dude comes in and says ‘hey can I have the toilet key?’ without buy something, it just is not right. It’s a bit rude, in fact to expect to be allowed to use said facilities gratis. At least offer to pay some money to use, show some consideration for the establishment.
Has Google rescinded its decision to involve ADL in youtube censorship?
https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/adl-applauds-google-and-youtube-in-expanding-initiative-to-fight-online-hate
“Vilkomerson criticized ADL for honoring the St. Louis Police Department one year after their officers killed Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American man in Ferguson.”
Brown was killed by the Ferguson P.D., not St. Louis.
I didn’t know much of the ADL record recounted here. Not pretty.
When they came out against the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” – endorsing a campaign of pure stupidity and bigotry – I was disappointed in them, but I begin to see that that’s who they’ve been for a long time.
Most people don’t know. That’s the problem.
I would imagine the manager asked the men if they intended to buy anything. To which they answered no otherwise why would the police have been called. As long as management consistently calls the police for people who refuse to leave or buy anything, then race is not an issue.
Why are Starbucks then acting as guilty of racism by adopting anti racism training initiative for their staff? Why to bother if they are not guilty?
To try and appease the artificiality of Social Justice Warriordom, i.e. people like you.
I see no reason why any business should let someone walking in off the street to use their facilities. The facilities are provided for the benefit of the businesses’ paying customers.
If one is caught short whilst on the street, go and use a public loo – I assume you have such public facilities in the exceptional manifest destined yankeeland.
Also, the tables and chairs are proved for the customers to ‘enjoy’ their purchase (as much as one can ‘enjoy’ the Starbucks so-called coffee (what’s with the size of the buckets they serve it in)), not for a couple of people to kill some time.
yea cause racism doesnt exist and the ADL doesnt want to censor everything ever written about israel unless it was praise.
what a tool you are.
why so angry?
you think blacks are confronting racism and you are worried racists wont exist anymore?
My impression is that something is missing from the story and keep wondering why all the “thinking” people at this site believe it.
This, I agree with Ms Vilkomerson, is indeed an excellent outcome. I hope to support many more outcries led by voices of reason, clearly letting corporate America know what our values are and what will not be tolerated. I begin to cautiously hope again that in my lifetime we will put an end to “Corporate personhood.” And republish the true version of the Second Amendment, to establish for once and all what that amendment actually says and means. Corporations are not people and do not have the rights of US citizens. Only voting citizens do.
Molly Gibbs, exactly, we as a society desperately need to have a substantial conversation about “Corporate personhood” it is a fundamental and deeply flawed problem with our entire system of government. The introduction of that concept into our laws, the legal changes that has wrought, all have to be critically examined, and in my opinion either severely modified or eliminated. Thank you for your response.
There was a time when I had unimpeded sympathy for what the Jewish endured during Hitler’s Holocaust, and for the most part I still do, but with how the Zionist have exploited that terrible episode in human history it leaves me skeptical to what their agenda may be. I fear for the average Jew, that one day the backlash for this exploitation will be nothing short of horrendous for the Jewish people to bear.
The good news with this ADL involvement in the Starbuck racism project, is that Starbucks had to reject the ADL due to other concerns. It’s nice to see the overpowering ADL lose one, for a change.
About the Black men not purchasing anything I find it ridiculous since every time I pass by a Starbucks I see loads of people sitting there with their laptops either with them having one drink sitting there, or sometimes none at all. Personally I don’t understand why you would even wish to sit in a cafe typing on a computer keyboard… is this fun? Is Starbucks a coffee house, or a communal gathering place?
Finally here is a article by Gordon Duff explaining to who the real Russians were to who colluded with our government, and the Trump campaign.
https://journal-neo.org/2018/04/28/off-the-hook-russia-clear-in-us-election-boondoggle/
Since you introduced the Duff article into the forum…
The congressional committee’s surmise from non-existent to scant fact is disturbingly surreal. Most of the pitifully few ads or posts re the U.S. presidential campaign on the internet that emanated from within Russia were by free-lancers, not Russian government sources. Most of these were innocuous click bait that delivered no skewed bias towards Clinton or Trump, none of them received much notice or got “retweeted,” and most were actually posted AFTER the election. They truly had no effect on the election. Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT (an actual creature of the Russian government), admitted to paying $30 apiece to post two tweets on the election. Apparently, this was the extent of any actual Russian “meddling” in American democracy. Here’s the write-up from RT:
“During the election campaign, the report says (see page 32), RT engaged in “wide-ranging” attacks on Hillary Clinton, “including the insinuation that the Clinton family were criminals,” and “used advertising to promote material leaked by Russian intelligence.” To illustrate this point, the committee offered screenshots of two promoted RT tweets.
“You read right. Two tweets. Which, if the screenshots can be trusted, got but a handful of retweets and even fewer replies.
“We spent $30 for two tweets, and those two tweets destroyed their democracy,” RT’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan quipped on Twitter, summarizing the report. “And we criticized both Hillary and Trump, but Hillary more often. And that’s offensive.”
So, if THAT was considered Russian “meddling” in America’s democracy, allegedly enough to change the results (or else why the fuss?), what are we to make about all the American posturing and accusations about Vladimir Putin being the “New Hitler,” his war crimes in Ukraine and Syria, his support for “the animal Assad,” and all the rest of that crap that’s been spewed for at least the last 7 or 8 years? When we openly push for “regime change” not only in Syria but talk about it openly for Russia as well, what is that? If not “meddling” in the affairs of another country? As I said, it’s surreal. Washington lays down a set of standards to which Russia MUST scrupulously adhere whilst we brazenly violate every one of those proclamations ourselves. I know most of the world kowtows to our whims out of fear, but does any other country truly believe a thing we have to say? How can they?
Surreal is a good way to describe what’s happening with U.S. diplomacy, if diplomacy is what you want to call it. Would people understand it better if it were us Italians? I mean it would be like the Italian Mafia working behind the scenes with Trump, all the while the media blames this election tampering on the Pope.
People are being misled to believe it to be Russians interfering in our U.S. elections, but who are these Russians? Well as many a writer as Gordon Duff is pointing out it is the Jewish Russian Mafia, Putin’s arch rivals who have colluded with Trump on money laundering.
I’m so disgusted with the MSM panic alleging Russian hijacking of our American way of life that I’m ready to blame it all on little green men from Mars, and call it a day. The good news is, is that you can’t sit idly by at a Starbucks… well at least Black men can’t. I say this sarcastically of course, but seriously what have we become?
why post comments if you have zero understanding of what you comment about?
the influence goes much deeper with the stealing of untold millions of bios used to target voters through propaganda…not to even mention the illegal cash…..why dont you know that and know also…that is just the beginning of what will eventually be disclosed?
“Personally I don’t understand why you would even wish to sit in a cafe typing on a computer keyboard… is this fun? Is Starbucks a coffee house, or a communal gathering place” ?
Joe as a lifelong self-employed individual who works out of my home office, I have long sought out a “refuge” from that dual existence. Starbucks and other coffee shops offer that brief escape for me and many others. I’m reminded of the rather profound observation that Jane Jacobs made years ago when she declared that it was the shop owners not the police that controlled the urban core. As a society we seem to be headed to a more diverse less centralized business model and, if that is true, we’ll see even more people about conducting business in public. We must always shine a light on racism in this society, then try to seek a good outcome. Starbucks is many things, as well as a community gathering place.
Thanks Bob for setting me straight. I guess I don’t see the advantage, but you explained it, and I learned something today that I totally ignored yesterday. I think everyone should have a place to find comfort in. So if settling down at Starbucks with your laptop, and a cup of brew is your thing, then have at it. Again thanks for setting me straight Bob. I value your opinion a lot. Joe
Thank you Joe, you’re a real gentleman and I treasure your ability to foster discussion. It is precisely
what we need now.
Is there another way to play the game of life together? Of course there is, but your Rulers don’t want you to think about it.
Our chains are made of $$$$$$$$$$. If you have enough little green tickets, you’re in – if you don’t have enough of them, then you better go out and get a slave wage job, or go hungry. Play the system’s game – or else.
And your alternative is what?
Obviously, change the rules of the game. Do you really think that unfettered capitalism is the only possible way of organizing the economic life of a society? It is but one way, and we are seeing the result of it in unprecedented levels of wealth inequality. Oh, and keep private money out of politics. That particular rule change would help tremendously in restoring some measure of real democracy.
Great suggestions. Now tell me how this can be REALISTICALLY brought to fruition?
It’s your job too to think about how!
One reason “In God We Trust” is printed on American paper money
Rich people control our society. That is what an oligarchy is. Your value to our rulers is solely determined by whether you can make them more money. If you are economically worthless to them, then you don’t count, and you are disposable.
Maybe so-called “black” people don’t fit Starbucks upscale image of their preferred clientele? Besides, such people might not want to pay two or three bucks for a cup of coffee. And people have to pass our scrutiny and meet our standards before we would grant them the common decency of a place to relieve themselves.
Howard Schultz, one of the biggest supporters of Israel, is the former CEO and current executive chairman for Starbucks, hence Starbucks overall success, choosing the ADL, then keeping them on a consultant after the backlash.
Does anyone believe that Starbucks did or does have a policy that people can’t use their tables as a park. IF I every saw a setup this is it. Starbucks seems not to realize that they are a coffee shop and people want to have a coffee must wait for some table that two people
use for waiting and nothing else. If everyone waiting for someone should go to Starbucks and sit and wait. It motto could be “STARBUCKS come and sit and wait but please don’t buy anything just sit and wait and damn them people that came to have a coffee just let them wait.
You found a way to avoid the racist issue involved here. Very clever. Maybe you are a lawyer, or a lobbyist?
Or maybe what he said was kinda valid, maybe amongst your spam here you missed that.
BS,,how many couples with their own laptops have you seen sitting across from one another 3 feet away, silently transfixed into their monitors with earbuds..
Yes yes, did they buy a coffee tho?
There are plenty of white people who sit and wait for their friends to arrive before purchasing their coffee. They were targeted for being black, pure and simple. If they were white, they would have gotten to use the restroom and wait for their friend to show up before ordering. You are willfully blind not to see that.
As a white guy, that’s always been my personal experience at Starbucks.
These guys were doing what I’ve done a hundred times, but they were arrested.
Please go back and re-edit your comment so that it makes sense. I’m sorry, I feel like I’m pretty intelligent, but I honestly have no clue what you’re getting at.
The undercurrent issue of American police being trained by Israel in “counter terrorism tactics” mentioned by Rebecca Vilkomerson, should be exposed to the public and stopped. Durham NC City Council just banned that practice a couple of weeks ago. I would like to see CN do a story on that. As for billionaire Howard Schultz’s concerns about Starbucks image and racism, i think this is nothing but a band-aid.
WTF are you talking about Jessika? Were the police who were involved in this specific incident trained by “Israel?” If so, post a supporting link. If you can’t do that, then kindly shut your mouth.
Chalk one up for the good guys! And, please, take a moment today to sit in protest of the Anti-Defecation League. Even Jewish people need to poop! What? Oh, never mind.
My question is – why didn’t they kick ADL off of the deal altogether’ Sounds like a half apology to me. If it was wrong to have them in a lead role, then why are you still hanging on to them? Scared of being called anti semitic? Typical corporate doubletalk.
I agree with you Mike, why is ADL still in the mix? It doesn’t sound like a win to me, just a case of evil going underground.
Absolutely they are terrified of being labeled anti-semitic. If they kicked ADL off altogether, think of the impact on their latte sales! They are walking a very fine line here. You’ve got it right, “typical corporate doubletalk.”
Skip I know you agree, but the ADL shouldn’t have that much impact on our American society, and then they cry about Russian interference…. wow. Joe
Some fresh air amidst the Zionist fog.
Some good news for a change. Excellent outcome indeed!
I’d sure like to know how ADL got included initially and/or at all. I think someone (or many) at Starbucks HQ needs some training.
Yep, but they won’t.