Coffee shop racism: where America's racial divisions are exposed
Many say the Starbucks incident exposed discrimination that people of color and black people in particular face every day
by Adam Gabbatt
May 28, 2018
4 minutes
When two black men were arrested in a Starbucks store in Philadelphia in April, it prompted a national debate. The coffee chain swiftly announced it would close 8,000 of its US stores on Tuesday 29 May, so staff can undergo racial bias training.
Many believe such incidents do not only happen at Starbucks. Businesses across the US, some say, are guilty of a behavior so commonplace it is starting to be given its own term: “coffee shop racism”.
Alfredo Weeks, an instructor at the Columbus College of Art and Design and co-owner of a graphic design studio, was moved to write about the phenomenon.
“I open the door to a coffee shop, and as soon as I
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