Are you ready to #RaceTogether

Although well intended, Starbucks decided to pull the plug on its in-store Race Together campaign. When it launched over a week ago, the company encouraged their  employees to engage customers in race talk by writing #RaceTogether on cups. This was a move that had been met with a lot criticism.

While Starbucks is in no way, stepping away from the conversation however; they are going to continue but in more meaningful and yet less controversial ways. Kudos to Starbucks, I applaud them for making the brave move, because lets face it either way; they both acknowledged and directed attention to an issue that has been the basis of even more headlines lately.  They had us talking!

I personally think that providing a safe place to talk about race is a great idea although race is a deep and loaded issue (to put it mildly).  I can visualize that conversation going sour real quick while waiting for your drink in the store. I’m a frequenter of Starbucks and while I’m very comfortable with discussing race and having candid talks with the staff at my regular store, I’m not confident that my baristas are knowledgeable enough on the issue of race to engage in and/or diffuse a conversation that went awry.

If more employers invested in training its employees on how to understand the issue of race and schools invested in incorporating cultural competence into their curriculums, overall more people would be informed and better able to approach the conversation with some common language and understanding. Maybe then as a society we will be closer to the point where we can randomly talk race over our morning coffee.

Until then, let’s stay tuned to see what Starbucks does next in their Race Together efforts. In the  meantime, want to learn more on the topic of race and more  importantly, want to acquire some tools to undo racism, here’s some great resources that I have personally utilized in both my work and my own education on understanding the complexity of race.

The Peoples institute for Survival and Beyond – Undoing Racism

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In The Age Of Colorblindness – By Michelle Alexander

Race – The Power of An Illusion –California News Reel

The House I Live In – A  Film By Eugene Jarecki

Events from March 24, 2015 – April 4, 2015 – Race and The City – Flexn Conversations

• How knowledgeable and equipped are you to discuss race?

Need more resources, let me know……………..Spread Love, It’s the BrooKyn Kisha Way!

Can You Talk Race?