I do not see how this could possibly end badly: “Beginning on Monday, Starbucks baristas will have the option as they serve customers to hand cups on which they’ve handwritten the words “Race Together” and start a discussion about race.”  …And hopefully by Friday Starbucks will discover that roughly one-fourth of its customer base would very much like to respond to a discussion of race with the factual statement of “Gee, Senator Moynihan pretty much called it when he said that breaking up the nuclear family unit was going to blight African-Americans for generations, huh?”  But they won’t, because in this particular case ‘discussion about race’ freely translates to ‘lecture the white person on race.’  That’s fine for the Left; they kind of have a taste for that sort of thing.

For everybody else… well, there are other coffee joints. Personally, I wouldn’t be quite as eager to even risk driving away a respectable percentage of my existing customer base.  Particularly in this economy; contrary to what many people apparently believe, ‘fancy coffee drinks’ are a luxury item. Sure, people do stick to their brands: but they can also drop them, given sufficient provocation.  Having to face an uncomfortably one-sided discussion before one has had his first cup of coffee in the morning just might do the trick, there.

But never mind me.  Starbucks is gonna Starbucks, and they didn’t ask for my opinion. Yeah, I know: they said that they did, but they really didn’t. That’s kind of the point.

Via @BrianFaughnan.

(Image via Shutterstock)

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: It would almost be worth it to go to a Starbucks where somebody was doing this, be given the cup with ‘Race Together’ written on it, and then loudly respond “Actually, I didn’t request this.  Give me another cup, please – and don’t write on it this time.”  Almost.  After all, you’d be holding up the line.