‘Race Together’: Starbucks Stirs Up Controversy With Race Relation Campaign
The next time you go to Starbucks, you may see more than your name scribbled on the side of your cup.
The Seattle-based coffee chain is launching a new campaign to address race relations by asking employees to write “Race Together” on the side of customers’ cups.
The idea is to spark a conversation between baristas and customers.
“What if we were to write ‘Race Together’ on every Starbucks cup, and that facilitated a conversation between you and our customers?” Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz says in a video message to employees in explaining the campaign. “And what if our customers as a result of that had a renewed level of understanding and sensitivity about the issue, and they themselves would spread that to their own sphere of influence?”