@beckyromero It’s still not illegal, though. And they told the manager they were waiting for another person (who subsequently arrived as his friends were being taken away). I don’t care what you say, if they’d been white no one would’ve bothered them. There were white customers who said they hadn’t yet made purchases either. And black customer = robber ?
I don’t care what you say, if they’d been white no one would’ve bothered them. There were white customers who said they hadn’t yet made purchases either. And black customer = robber ?
Not necessarily disagreeing with you. You are probably right in that assumption.
But I do think common courtesy is to not to hang around a restaurant if you have no intention of ordering something.
@beckyromero If it quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. And you’re willing to give her much more benefit of doubt than she was willing to give those men.
Actually, trespassing is illegal.
And there’s a precedent for deciding someone black is “trespassing” and someone white is not in a public business:
you’re willing to give her much more benefit of doubt than she was willing to give those men.
Only because we haven't heard her side of what happened. It could very well be she only called the police because they were black. But we don't know that for sure.
As to your image, yes, discrimination like that is very wrong.
@bijouxbroussard Do we know for sure these people would not have been asked to leave if they were white? The article I read didn't say anything about that but if you're right it's bad, of course, and Starbucks would then deserve all the negative publicity it gets for doing that.
@fazer1k A couple of white customers who witnessed the incident said they hadn’t been questioned about not yet having bought anything. But as someone else pointed out, it might’ve been less about Starbucks as a company than it was about that particular manager.
@fazer1k There’s also a difference between being asked to leave (i.e., if the store is crowded and they need the space for paying customers) and having the police called in.
@bijouxbroussard I do think it says more about the individual manager than about company policy....but calling the police in a situation like this is just wrong (not to mention that having the men led away in handcuffs by the police was also very wrong).
Well, the chances of her saying, “I was afraid because they were black” is probably unlikely, true or not.
Agreed.
Also, I do wonder if the two men were asked to leave before she called the police. Haven't seen anything yet to indicate whether they were or not. If not, why not?
Also, the PD could let the public know if they had received previous calls from that Starbuck's asking to kick out people.
In other words, has it happened before that may or may not show a pattern?
he men were interviewed today. I posted a story about it.
Have not seen it; where?
Wasn't there something about one guy wanting to use the restroom? Did they let him or did it escalate immediately to "buy something or leave?" Or did they even bother to warn the two guys?
Is this really a pattern with Starbucks or is it an isolated incident? I really don't know and rarely go there. (I have to make coffee at home. Could never wait until I'm on the road!)
@DragonFruit I'm assuming the police were called only because the guys refused to either leave or buy something. I have an intense dislike of racism but I'm finding it hard to work out whether this was actually a racist act or whether this manager would have issued the same ultimatum to white people (probably not a great manager either way). I don't feel I have enough information, perhaps because I'm not American and have not had the same media exposure.
@bijouxbroussard If those customers have stated that publicly or to the police then, yes, it doesn't seem as though anything but racism is left to explain what happened. That being the case I can't see why the police would have made any arrests given the obvious bias involved - not to clever of them either!
@fazer1k Here's more information, especially the beginning interview with a white eyewitness who captured it on her cell. [media=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVKZqbzDUl4]
