Ep. 12 - The Pitchfork Mob Comes For Starbucks
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Summary
In this episode, I tell two harrowing stories from inside a Starbucks and explain why racism is the root cause of the Starbucks controversy. I also explain why Starbucks is closing more than 8,000 stores across the U.S. and the latest on the latest protests and boycotts.
Transcript
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Welcome to the show, everybody. Thank you for listening. Hope you've had a great morning so far.
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I want to, I don't mean to disturb you, but I want to start with two stories.
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They're sort of harrowing stories that I want to tell, just to start with, because it relates to
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the subject at hand. So here's the first story. These are both true stories, by the way.
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So last week I went into a cafe in DC and I really needed to use the bathroom. So I went in and I
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said, where's your bathroom? And they said, bathrooms are for customers only. And so clearly the next
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thing that I did was I called the FBI because it was a hate crime. I mean, what, how else are you
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supposed to, how else can you respond to something like that? No, actually what I did was I said,
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oh, okay. And then I bought a coffee and then I said, can you hold the coffee here for a minute?
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I'm going to use the bathroom because it's, it's actually the concept of a restaurant or a store
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only allowing customers to use the facilities. That's a really normal concept in the world that
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I live in, which is just reality where a great many stores and restaurants have that policy.
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Now here's the second story. Again, totally a true story. This didn't happen to me,
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but I did witness it and I was traumatized by it. I was at a Starbucks a few months ago and I was
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sitting there doing my work, minding my own business. There was a guy, it wasn't even that
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busy by the way, but there was a guy at a table, a few tables over from me. And he was, I noticed he
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was just sitting there at the table for a little bit. He wasn't drinking any coffee. He didn't buy
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anything. And then he falls asleep and he's like sleeping at the table for only a couple of minutes
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and until the manager comes over and wakes him up and says, you're going to have to leave. You can't
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sleep here. And so the guy packs up his stuff and leaves. It was a white guy, by the way. But again,
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you know, I didn't even realize it at the time, but, but apparently I witnessed a horrible human
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rights infringement because this guy had a human right to come into private property and use it as
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a, uh, you know, a camping ground if he wanted to. Now I tell these stories because they relate to the,
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um, obviously the Starbucks controversy, which has been raging and still hasn't calmed down, um,
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over the last few days. And the latest on that, let me see if I can find it. I was just looking at
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the story. Uh, the daily wire has the story, uh, that on Tuesday, Starbucks announced that the
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company is going to close over 8,000 stores across the United States next month to conduct racial bias
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education geared toward preventing discrimination in their stores. Um, so that's approximately 175,000
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Starbucks employees who now will have to undergo racial bias, um, or, you know, discrimination
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training because of these two incidents that happened at, uh, two different Starbucks locations
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over the last few days. If you're not familiar, just very quickly, I'll get you up to speed.
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There have been protests and boycotts and everything because of these two incidents. The first incident
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happened in a Starbucks in Philadelphia, a video surfaced and went viral of two black men
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being escorted out of a Starbucks in cuffs. Um, they were being arrested in handcuffs. It's a,
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you know, pretty short video and there's not a lot to it. There's not, you know, we don't see what
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happened before then or after we just see these guys being escorted out. Not a lot of details,
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but just the image of two black men being arrested and removed from a Starbucks. That was enough in the
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minds of a lot of people in the minds of the pitchfork, pitchfork mob, especially that was
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enough to prove that we'll clearly there's racism here. I mean, there couldn't possibly be any other
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explanation at all. It must be racism because these two guys were black then. So that was, that was,
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uh, that was enough of a controversy. And then on Monday, I don't know if it was on Monday, but
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yeah, it was on Monday, a, um, a Starbucks in Los Angeles went viral because there was video,
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uh, shot by a black man who went into this Starbucks, asked to use the restroom. And they
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said, well, restrooms are for customers only now again, very normal policy, especially, especially
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now maybe if you live in a more rural area, if you live in the suburbs, um, maybe you don't
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encounter it as much, but at urban restaurants and stores where there are a lot of people coming in
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and out, this is extremely common. In fact, it's the norm. It's, I can't remember the last time I
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went into a, you know, uh, a, a restaurant in a city and they would just let anyone use the bathroom,
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even if they weren't customers. So really normal policy, this guy, he could have responded the way
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that I did when I was in DC. And I was told the same thing. And that is just buy something, buy a
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coffee, buy a, you know, just buy a, buy a cup of yogurt. I mean, buy anything. And then you can
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use the restroom, but that's not what this guy does. Instead. He pulls out a, his camera and,
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um, he pulls out his phone and he starts taking video that a white guy walks out of the restroom
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and without asking, by the way, you know, this, the, the black guy comes up to the white guy,
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puts them on camera, doesn't ask his permission. And he finds out that the white guy apparently
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hadn't bought anything either yet. He was allowed to use the bathroom. So that proves, um, racism
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that he goes up to the manager who, by the way, does not appear to be white herself. She's a woman
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appears to be not sure what her race is, but she appears to be a non-white woman.
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And he starts berating her, um, for her supposed racial bias. And in both cases, that's enough for
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the, uh, pitchfork mob. And so now, you know, Starbucks is in cleanup mode. The Starbucks CEO
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just absolutely threw his own employees under the bus. This, the manager at the Philadelphia location,
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he just threw her under the bus, didn't even try to defend her. And now he's been, he met with the
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mayor of Philadelphia. Uh, he's met with, you know, activists. He met with the two men who were arrested.
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He's been good. He was on good morning America. I mean, he's been meeting with, uh, he met with,
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um, he met with, uh, I think he met with the King of Saudi Arabia as well. For some reason,
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he's just meeting with everybody talking about this and just throwing his employees under the
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bus in the process. And even this racial bias discrimination training, you're essentially
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throwing your employees under the bus. Again, what you're implying, I mean, if you're forcing 175,000
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employees to undergo this bias training, what you're insinuating is that a lot of them are racially
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biased. Now here's the thing, a couple of things. First of all, I'm not a fan of Starbucks policy.
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I do like their product. I'll admit, I know a lot of people don't, they say it tastes burnt,
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but, uh, I guess I like burnt coffee. So I like their burnt coffee. Um, not a fan of their politics.
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So I'm not one to usually defend Starbucks, but even less, am I a fan of pitchfork mobs?
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And I know that sometimes conservatives will tend to, when they see something like this,
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they see the liberal pitchfork mob coming after a liberal company. The conservatives will,
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will sit back and say, Oh, isn't this nice? Isn't this nice to watch this happen? See,
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they're being, being hoisted with their own petard. That's a, that's a nice thing to see.
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Well, I think it's a really bad idea. I've said this many times. It's a bad idea to take the side
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of the pitchfork mob in any situation, no matter who they're coming after. I mean, the pitchfork mob
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should always be stood against. So that's the first thing. The second thing is, I, you know,
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I don't know this, this manager, the Philadelphia location, she doesn't work there anymore. I guess
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she got fired the manager at law in the Los Angeles location. Maybe they're racist. I, I don't know.
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I can't, I don't know them personally. I can't say for sure they aren't, but there's, there are quite
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a few reasons to suspect that there are probably other explanations and what we should do if we are
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rational and honest people. Um, and we're, you know, and we're decent people as well,
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then we're not going to immediately assume when something like this happens, we're not going to
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immediately assume, Oh, well, it must be racism. We're not just going to leapfrog over all of the
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other possible explanations and say, Nope, it's none of them. It's gotta be racism. So what are some
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other possible explanations? We know in the, in the case of Philadelphia, let's take them one at a
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time. Philadelphia, the two men were sitting in the store, taking up seats. Um, they hadn't actually
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purchased anything. This is loitering. It's trespassing. The, these restaurants do not exist
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as just public forums to, for you to just come in and hang out anytime you want it. They own it.
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They set the rules for engagement and their rules for engagement are, I think pretty reasonable,
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pretty clear, pretty simple. You got to buy something if you want to sit at the table,
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because there are a lot of, here's what happens. There are a lot of customers who do buy something
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and they would like to have a table to sit at, but you're taking up the table, even though you
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didn't buy anything. And that's not fair. And so that's why these companies have rules against it.
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Now, it just so happens that this particular location in Philadelphia has had apparently a problem
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with loitering recently. And so this has been a policy that they've been focusing on more and
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more. Um, and they've had to enforce. So the store employees tried to deal with the situation
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calmly and peacefully and reasonably. And they told the men that, look, you know, if you're not going
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to buy anything, then you have to leave. The two guys refused to leave. They refused to leave the store.
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Okay. Even though they were told you got to buy something or leave. They said, apparently they
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said, we're not going to buy anything and we're not going to leave either. And then the employee
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said, okay, well then we're going to, we're going to, um, we're going to call the police.
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And apparently what the two men said was, well, go ahead and call them. We're still not going to
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leave. Then the police arrive and they're negotiating with these men for several minutes and saying,
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look, you just need to leave. You can't, it's just not, it's private property. You can't just hang out here.
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If you're not a customer and they still refuse to leave. So let, let, let's go, let's go through
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the, let's go through the process here. Okay. Step one, we have them deciding not to buy anything
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and take up a table. Step two, even when they're told, well, if you're not going to buy anything,
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you got to leave. They still refuse to leave. Step three, the police show up and say, well,
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you got to leave. And they still refused. So then they got arrested. Now, of course it's,
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it's claimed that the white P that, um, it's claimed that, well, you know, white people loiter
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at Starbucks all the time and they're never asked to leave. Really? I mean, do you know that
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that's quite a thing to just declare? Well, white, white people are never told to leave Starbucks.
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How do you know? You're, you're, you're telling me it never happens. You know, that for a fact,
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you know, that at this location in Philadelphia, they have never asked white people to leave for
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loitering. Do you know that? Because if you know it, I mean, let, please provide your evidence
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because that would be very significant. I mean, if you had evidence that they frequently allow white
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people to loiter and never enforce the rules against white people, but then they do against black
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people. Well, then that is compelling evidence of racial discrimination. And then the protests are
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warranted. Um, in fact, the protests wouldn't even be warranted even in that case, because it's,
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that would still just be one manager who's now fired, who's guilty, but, um, at least they'd be
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more warranted than they are now. So if you have evidence of that, then let me know. I can tell you
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that I have, I just told you, I have seen myself at a Starbucks, a white person being kicked out for
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loitering. So I know it does happen and I'm betting it's happened at this Philadelphia location
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because that's, see, see, that's the thing. If let's say, um, this manager, whoever this person is,
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is just uncontrollably, uncontainably racist. I mean, they're so racist that they would just,
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that they would actually kick out two black men simply for being black. I mean, that is,
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that's not just racist. That is, that's like racism on steroids. That is, you're so racist
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that you're going to even give up your job because that's what you're doing. That's what the manager
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will be doing in that case. The manager is saying, you know what, I'm going to forfeit this job just
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so I can make a racist statement against these black men, which is possible. But then the question is,
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how did this manager manage to survive and function at a Starbucks in Philadelphia
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if they're that racist against black people? Because I would assume, and I'm just assuming,
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but I think it's pretty safe assumption that this Starbucks in Philadelphia, we're not talking about
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a Starbucks in the middle of a, you know, a town of 500 in North Dakota. Okay. Starbucks in Philadelphia,
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they probably have black customers coming in and out of that store hundreds of times a week, if not a
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day. And so has this manager, I mean, has she, does she always do this? If she's so racist against
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black people, why is this the first time she's kicked out black people when there's been so many
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others, she could have kicked out and she didn't. It just, it just doesn't make a lot of sense.
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It's possible. It just doesn't make a lot of sense. Now, then we have the incident in Los Angeles.
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Now that, that one to me is even less of a, I mean, that one to me is so clearly, it's very clear
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that the guy came in looking for, he want, that's why he pulled out the video. It's not a normal,
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if you're just innocently there and you just want to use the bathroom and someone
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tells you, okay, well, um, you know, you got to buy something to use the bathroom.
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If your response is to pull out a camera and start taking a video for Twitter,
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that means that this is what you were looking for. Okay. This is not, this was not, this wasn't an
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innocent request on your part. You were looking for this exact response so that you could try to
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entrap them in some fake false racism claim. But if the question is, well, okay, well, why did they,
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they said, they, they, they, they said no to the black guy, but the white guy was allowed to,
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to use the bathroom, even though he didn't buy anything, you know, must be racism could be,
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or, you know, there are other explanations. It's possible that the white guy is a regular customer.
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He's there all the time. They know him. They know that he's going to buy something. So they let him
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use the bathroom first. I mean, to me, as just a logical person, that would be my first assumption.
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I would think it's probably that because regular customers frequently get privileges that non-regular
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customers don't get. I have several coffee shops that I go to all the time and they'll have my
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order ready for me before I even get up to the, to the, to the counter. I get free refills. Okay.
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I get all this stuff because I'm there all the time and I'm practically keeping them in business on my
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own. So could that be the explanation? Should we at least consider that explanation
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before we leap right to, Oh, it must be racism. It must be that this non-white woman working at a
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Starbucks in, in Los Angeles harbors this grudge against black people. I mean, it, again, possible,
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but given the context and the situation, that would not even be close to my first assumption.
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So of course, everything I'm saying, it doesn't matter because I can't, you know,
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you can't calm down the mob and, uh, and these employees, they don't even have their CEO behind
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them. So it's just, it's a done deal, but we do have to consider and think about, I mean, what's the,
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what's the implication here? Because now what Starbucks has done now is they have now announced
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that you're allowed to loiter in their stores. It's, this is what the CEO, by apologizing profusely
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on behalf of a manager who was simply enforcing rules against loitering by doing that, what he has
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declared to everybody in America is, well, at least if you're not white, you're allowed to loiter.
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I mean, come on in, use the wifi, sit down, use the bathrooms. You don't have to buy anything.
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In fact, bring your own packed lunch, bring a, bring your own dinner spread and just, uh, you know,
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just sit out and bring the family and just set up, you could set up a, set up a blanket there on the
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ground and have a picnic. It's basically what they've announced. They can't enforce
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rules against loitering anymore. There's a reason why I, I, when it comes to situations like this,
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I tend very often to fall on the side of the private company. I'll tell you something. I felt
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the same. I was saying the same thing with that, with the whole controversy with, um, whatever
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airline it was, I'm forgetting which airline was it where they dragged the guy out because he wouldn't
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give up his seat. And I sided with the airline on that. You know why? Because even if it's an unfair
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policy, when you're sitting in their establishment or in their airplane and they tell you to leave,
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you have to leave. They own it. You don't, you can't exercise some right over and above their own
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right to their own property. It's a very dangerous game. We start playing when we tell people that you
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now have a human right to just march into a private establishment and just stay there. Even
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if they tell you to leave, even if the police tell you to leave, you don't have to. No, I think that
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that's a, the implications there are very dangerous. So most of the time I'm going to tend to side with
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the private company, whether the policy is fair or not. At the end of the day, they, it's their
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business. It's their building. It's their plane. They exercise authority over it. And you have to
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play by their rules. If you want to use their property, this to me is just, is just a basic rule
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of living in a free and decent and civilized society. But we live in such a society, uh, less and less,
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I suppose. So there it is. There's my contrarian take on the Starbucks situation. Thanks for listening,