Two things about Starbucks’ efforts at tackling racism on May 29th:
1) It’s a meaningless, corporate brand management move that won’t make a dent in racist systems. They could have channeled revenues from the one day they’re taking off into movements such as #BLM and actually made a difference. Put your money where your mouth is.
2) To emphasize what an empty move this anti-racism training is, they hired the ADL to lead the effort. The ADL is an advocate for far right Israeli policy, meaning pro settler colonialism, pro apartheid, pro militarism, pro capitalism based on a persistent war economy, and islamophobic/racist AF. For example, the ADL was happy to celebrate the St Louis Police Department just days prior to the first anniversary of the execution of Michael Brown. This is what Jewish Voice for Peace had to say:
“We have cringed as the ADL positions itself locally as a champion of racial profiling legislation while sending US police – including former St. Louis County Police Chief Tim Fitch – to train on population control in Israel, an apartheid police state with more than 60 years of sophisticated expertise in racial profiling, mass incarceration, settler colonialism, and ethnic cleansing targeting the non-Jewish indigenous Palestinian people. […] Zionism – itself a form of white supremacy that oppresses Palestinians, Jews of color, and other marginalized groups – has no place in any antiracist movement.”
Let’s not honor neoliberal spectacles. Let’s stay real.