Anyone notice the questions that any decent reporter should be asking here that aren't being asked?
Link: http://www.newsweek.com/calls-grow-boycott-starbucks-after-two-black-men-arrested-not-ordering-886355
Two guys are "real estate agents" who are meeting up with a "colleague" at Starbucks. Fine, happens all the time. Here's what stinks:
1 - They chose to wear attire that I have never, ever seen a real estate agent wear to any semblance of a business meeting.
2 - They loitered at Starbucks for so long that it caught the attention of employees - that takes a special length of time to do at a place where people do that all day (yes, I'm aware that the knee-jerk response is that their skin color made them stand out). Either way, they were in there so long that they were asked about whether they were going to order something and what they were doing there so long.
3 - They were asked to leave, refused, warned that the cops would be called, still refused, and MAGICALLY, the second the police arrive to ask them to leave (which they refused) and have to arrest them does this nominal "colleague" arrive (a 40-ish white guy in normal attire) to prove that these innocent men were doing nothing wrong all along and were truly just awaiting a business meeting.
Sorry - that doesn't pass the initial sniff test.
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Fuck that.
Back in my student days we got tossed from more than a few places for that kind of loitering.
But I agree with you and had the same reaction about the guy showing up at the exact right time.
I never, EVER implied that they were "people."
I'm basing this on more detailed reports coming out elsewhere that I don't have time to link, but look it up if you haven't already.
If it was staged or planned, it would be more about publicity and the latest in a long line of hoaxes.
I suspect this wasn't planned and was just a couple of guys who refused to leave after declaring they weren't purchasing anything.
It may not be settlement-related - it may well be for publicity.
The magically coincidental timing of the "colleague" they were having a business meeting with -- he was nowhere to be found until the absolute second that these two were being arrested -- just smells fishy.
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If it's the activist-types, they're motivated by publicity and attention for themselves, not so much money. I would just find Starbucks to be a curious choice. Then again, if I think of Starbucks, I automatically think of it as a haven for upwardly mobile whites. If it was a set up, I will love the cannibalism of it all, as I suspect a healthy majority of regular Starbucks customers think themselves down with the cause.
One other thing that I will reiterate: I have lived in the larger cities in the deep south for my entire life outside of four years in South Bend. As a result, I have worked with many African-American professionals in dozens of capacities - my office buildings, sales service, REAL ESTATE.
I have never, ever seen one of them dressed below Business Casual, let alone to the degree that the two men in the video were. I'd place a healthy wager that this was the end goal.
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We have also put men and women designations on the doors... which is obviously bigoted.
It was a busy time of day and these two guys had been there awhile and refused to buy anything after being asked about it a couple times. They aggravated the situation by asking to use the restroom. The staff debated what to do for awhile before the manager decided to call the cops.
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the suits in the company leave the peons out to dry, yet again. That's how it usually works in retail. The cowards could stand up for their employees and say, "Look, our people don't discriminate against people of any background or race. If there's a problem with our policies regarding when customers may be forced to leave, we, the leadership, have to answer to for that." They won't do that because there's little honor among those types anymore. It's like when any of these companies enacts some onerous policy or rule that ends up annoying or victimizing its customers, they always leave it to the least-paid nobodies in the company to be the ones to deal with the irate customers while they sit in their offices with the doors closed. The peons take the abuse for something over which they have no say and all they get for it in the end is a Jelly of the Month Club enrollment at the end of the year or a $20 gift card for the business at which they work.
He was perfectly within his right and my guess is that’s what he was trained to do.
I don’t know any Center City coffee or fast food place that lets you sit there and then take a piss without paying for something.
This one is total race baiting BS.
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I could see "Glorious White," but "Flat White?"