James Woods Scorches Controversial New Starbucks Policy
Remember when the job of coffee shops was to actually serve coffee?
Those days are long gone, at least if Starbucks’ bizarre new policies are any indication.
After a much-publicized arrest for loitering took place at one of the coffee chain’s locations, the company announced sweeping changes to how its employees interact with the public… but the guidelines seem to border on parody.
Gone are the “outdated” notions of ignoring skin color and treating people equally. Instead, Starbucks employees are apparently being taught that they’re supposed to see people’s race, and that this is somehow progressive.
“One of the first [training] videos criticized the concept of being ‘color-blind,’ insisting that no one is able to ignore race. The proper concept to strive for, the video explained, is to be ‘color-brave,’ a term the employee said was never specifically defined,” reported The Daily Wire, which talked to workers who attended the Starbucks training.
This sort of pseudo-social-justice double talk is exactly what actor James Woods just mocked on Twitter. Taking another example of Starbucks’ vague and fantastical “diversity training,” the conservative blasted the coffee company for its creepy employee instructions.
“From one human to another?” “Part of our third place?” Who talks like this, space aliens? Even George Orwell couldn’t write this kind of half-literate Big Brother gibberish on his best day.
Conservative comedian Joe DeVito responded to Woods’ post and pointed out that Starbucks is essentially demanding that its employees act as interpersonal problem solvers and mediators for homeless loiterers instead of, er, serving drinks.
“Good Lord. The job of the barista is to make coffee, serve coffee, and cleanup after coffee. Now they have to be bouncers, therapists & social workers,” he commented.
It’s a very good point. What happens when loiterers refuse to leave, even after being baby-talked by a teenage barista? What happens when a college-age employee, feeling empowered from this “diversity training,” intervenes in a spat between a group of feuding and unstable homeless “customers?”
If only our society had some sort of uniformed, trained force that could be called to sort out problems and had the legal authority to detain — oh wait.
The most talked about change to Starbucks’ policies is that it supposedly now welcomes anyone — including panhandlers and drug users, apparently — to loiter in the store without purchasing anything.
Strangely, however, the employee who talked to The Daily Wire reported that there are still no clear guidelines as to when someone can be asked to leave or not.
“The interesting thing was that they specifically mentioned the fact that we are still permitted to ask people to leave the shop if they are disrupting the welcoming atmosphere, but they left that threshold relatively undefined and up to interpretation,” the Starbucks source explained.
In other words, the company has apparently done absolutely nothing to clear up the situation that triggered this entire kerfuffle in the first place. Instead, they’ve gone all-in on meaningless buzzwords and touchy-feely whimsy.
This is where social justice ultimately leads: A situation that is ten times more confusing than before, without any of the underlying issues being solved or improved.
When ever-changing feelings replace any sort of sound principles, chaos and confusion is the result — coming to a local Starbucks near you.
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