Starbucks Ends Conversation
Starters on Race
By RAVI SOMAIYAMARCH 22, 2015 NY Times
Photo
Holly Ainslie, a barista in Seattle, will no longer be writing “Race Together” on cups. CreditTed
S. Warren/Associated Press
Howard D. Schultz, the chief executive of Starbucks, said in a letter
to employees on Sunday that baristas would no longer be encouraged
to write the phrase “Race Together” on customers’ coffee cups,
drawing to a close a widely derided component of the company’s plan
to promote a discussion on racial issues.
“While there has been criticism of the initiative — and I know this
hasn’t been easy for any of you — let me assure you that we didn’t
expect universal praise,” Mr. Schultz wrote.
Having baristas write on customers’ cups, Mr. Schultz wrote, “which
was always just the catalyst for a much broader and longer-term
conversation — will be completed as originally planned today, March
22.”
That end date had not previously been mentioned publicly, including
during Mr. Schultz’s discussion of the initiative at the company’s
annual shareholders meeting last week, but a company
spokeswoman, Laurel Harper, said employees had been told about it.
Asked whether Starbucks was reacting to criticism, Ms. Harper said,
“That is not true at all. When we initially began the Race Together
initiative, what we wanted to do is spark the conversation, because
we believe that is the first step in a complicated issue.”
She added, “Leading change isn’t an easy thing to accomplish.”
The initiative, which began last week, was mocked with such
vehemence on social media that the company’s senior vice president
for global communications deleted his Twitter account because, as he
wrote on Medium, he felt “personally attacked in a cascade of
negativity.”
Some critics said that Starbucks might look first to its own executive
team, which they suggested was considerably less diverse than lowerpaid staff. Others felt that a coffee company should not foist such
discussions on customers.
“I’ll have a flat white,” read one cartoon, referring to an espresso
drink the company has recently started serving. “No racism
intended.”
But the broader initiative, Mr. Schultz wrote Sunday, “is far from
over.”
More open forums are planned, Mr. Schultz wrote, and three special
sections in USA Today focusing on racial issues are to appear over
the next year, along with “more open dialogue with police and
community leaders in cities across our country, a continued focus on
jobs and education for our nation’s young people.”
Starbucks has also committed, he said, to hiring “10,000 opportunity
youth over the next three years” and expanding its store footprint in
“urban communities.”
The criticisms, Ms. Harper said, have not dented Starbucks’
determination. “This is who we are,” she said. “Our mission is to
inspire and nurture the human spirit, one person, one cup and one
neighborhood at a time. We know that we don’t have all the solutions
and the answers, but for us, doing nothing makes us part of the
problem.”
A version of this article appears in print on March 23, 2015, on page B3 of the New York
edition with the headline: Starbucks Ends Conversation Starters on Race. Order
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