Home Starbucks Fights Racism, Bows to Anti-Semitism
Home Starbucks Fights Racism, Bows to Anti-Semitism

Starbucks Fights Racism, Bows to Anti-Semitism

When a Philadelphia Starbucks manager called the police after two black men refused to leave, the chain of events ended with the burnt taste of the overpriced coffee chain colluding with anti-Semitism.
Starbucks reacted to the brief arrest by blaming the police, but Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross, who is African-American, initially said that his officers, “did absolutely nothing wrong”. But then he was forced to offer a bewildering apology to the arrested men, the officers and the entire city.
“It is me who in large part made most of the situation worse than it was,” he announced.
But that wasn’t Ross. It was Black Lives Matter and other black nationalist groups which targeted the coffee chain, chanting, “Starbucks coffee is anti-black”. And to appease them, Starbucks rolled out a major company retraining effort overseen by former Attorney General Eric Holder, along with Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative, Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP, Heather McGhee of Demos and Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL. Greenblatt was the only non-black civil rights leader on the list.
And, like a cup of overpriced Starbucks coffee, the burnt taste got worse the deeper you went.
In February, Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam had delivered a violently anti-Semitic speech to an appreciative audience that included Tamika Mallory. "White folks are going down," the hate group leader had declared. "And Farrakhan, by God's grace, has pulled the cover off of that Satanic Jew."
Farrakhan had praised Mallory and the Women’s March leader had dubbed him the greatest of all time. Nor was she the only Women’s March leader with a crush on the black nationalist bigot. Linda Sarsour and Carmen Perez had their own Farrakhan fandom. And despite pressure, the radical leftist org had refused to condemn Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, but continued to defend the hate group.
In the Greenblatt era, the ADL had become even more tentative about challenging anti-Semitism on the left. It had been largely absent in the battles over campus anti-Semitism, had defended some forms of BDS and had attacked Jewish civil rights activists, such as Canary Mission, for fighting for Jewish rights.
But the ADL took credit for condemning Mallory’s attendance and support for Farrakhan. The Nation of Islam’s anti-Semitism had been widely denounced. And the ADL didn’t think it was taking much of a risk.
When Starbucks made its retraining announcement, Mallory and her allies were quick to pounce. They berated the coffee chain for working with an “anti-black” organization. The dispute split the left between black nationalists and establishment groups. Mallory was joined by Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, while Neera Tanden of the Center for American Progress, called them out.
“Women of color who promote anti-Semitism -- defending Farrakhan and attacking ADL - are deserving of criticism and I say that as a woman of color.” Tanden had retorted sharply.
But the brief shining moment of decency on the left quickly vanished as Starbucks dumped the ADL.
In the dispute between black nationalist Farrakhan fans and the ADL, Starbucks chose anti-Semitism. The coffee chain was spending money buying immunity from protests by Tamika’s allies. There was no reason for it to continue working with the ADL if the organization not only couldn’t protect it from angry protesters, but if its Jewish associations might actually incite even more attacks on its businesses.
And the rest of the Starbucks social justice deck would have been more likely to lean toward Mallory.
As Attorney General, Eric Holder had become notorious for his collaboration with black racist and anti-Semitic groups, including The New Black Panther Party and Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund had participated in the Women’s March. And the NAACP has its own troubling history with Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.
Tossing the ADL overboard, the corporate leadership of Starbucks showed that it would fight racism, but collude with anti-Semitism. And it wasn’t the first time Starbucks had colluded with anti-Semitism.
In 2014, Starbucks had issued a bizarre statement assuring Muslims that it didn’t fund Israel.
"Neither Starbucks nor the company’s chairman, president and CEO Howard Schultz provide financial support to the Israeli government and/or the Israeli Army in any way," the press release assured.
It stated that its Israeli stores were closed and that its business plans for the region would be developed with a Kuwaiti family. Kuwait has been known to boycott companies doing business with Israel.
The press release insisted that Starbucks is "a non-political organization." Except that’s a lie.
Starbucks had pushed for gun control, cheered gay marriage and refugee migration. The coffee chain hadn’t been worried about the resulting boycotts. It was only concerned about offending customers with certain views. Those views have always included anti-Semitism.
The politically correct coffee chain dropped the ADL for the same reason it had disavowed Israel.
It would have been unthinkable for Starbucks to have put out a press release assuring the KKK that it didn’t do business with black people. Or that it didn’t donate to gay marriage or to Muslim groups.
It’s never been proven that the Philly Starbucks had racist motivations, but the entire company has a consistent history of blatantly pandering to anti-Semites that is as bitter as its dark roast. 
The Starbucks double standard on anti-Semitism is the same one that pervades the left.
From Jesse “Hymietown” Jackson to the Women’s March, civil rights has required a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ with anti-Semitism. Al Sharpton led a race riot through a Jewish neighborhood and was rewarded for it with a speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention, an MSNBC show and easy access to Obama and Holder. Mallory had been photographed with Farrakhan, but so had Obama.
And then there’s the NAACP, whose legal defense fund had also been enlisted by Starbucks.
NAACP leaders have repeatedly appeared with Farrakhan. Benjamin Chavis, who had become notorious for convening a summit with the Nation of Islam, later joined the hate group. Ben Jealous, currently running for the governor of Maryland, appeared at forums attended by Farrakhan.
Muslim advocacy has followed the same pattern with groups such as CAIR, whose leaders have made anti-Semitic statements and who have hosted Neo-Nazis, being elevated while their bigotry is ignored. 
That’s how we ended up with Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour. And Louis Farrakhan.
The post-King era has erroneously conflated racial tribalism with civil rights. Its civil rights leaders are invariably black nationalists and that’s why they find it so hard to resist Farrakhan’s racist supremacism.
Starbucks could have rejected both racism and anti-Semitism. But that’s too much work. Like most corporations, it doesn’t partner with racial healers, but racial dividers. They’re the ones who threaten its bottom line. And they’re the ones who are seen as having credibility with the radicals on the street.
The real lesson here is for the ADL which tried to have it both ways. Under Greenblatt, it wanted to belong to the social justice axis while paying lip service to the fight against anti-Semitism. It did the least that it could do to challenge anti-Semitism on the left. And even that proved to be too much for the left.
There’s no room on the left for even the mildest criticisms of anti-Semitism from the left.
Like Starbucks, the ADL will have to choose between fighting anti-Semitism and pandering to the left. And, like Starbucks, it is likely to drop anti-Semitism as the price of admission for staying on the left. 
Starbucks will go on touting its commitment to fighting racism even as it colludes with anti-Semitism. And the ADL will criticize anti-Semitism from white nationalists, but not black nationalists, from the right but not the left, and hope that the overpriced coffee chain will welcome it back with some burnt coffee.
 Because there’s no price to pay for anti-Semitism, but there is a bitter price for fighting anti-Semitism.




Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center's Front Page Magazine.

Click here to subscribe to my articles. And click here to support my work with a donation.

Thank you for reading.

Comments

  1. Not that I care because the only thing Starbucks makes that's worth drinking is the hot chocolate...and at their prices i'll just go to Dunkin Donuts down the road.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What? Starbucks fight racism??? How is that?
    Dont call BLM and NOI or the Panters black nationalists, bc. they not, they are God damned racists and supremacists.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous6/5/18

    Your sentence "conflating racial tribalism with civil rights" is the most succinct description of the racial problems in this Country that I have ever read.

    ReplyDelete
  4. In the early 1980s, Reggie Jackson was one of the greatest baseball players.

    During a dispute between Yankee baseball players and Yankee owner George Steinbrenner, Reggie Jackson (who just happened to be African-American) said:

    “Blacks do all the work, and Jews just own everything.”

    Reggie Jackson received no punishment and no criticism for this public statement, not even the smallest of the small.

    In addition to being anti-Semitic, this statement was also foolish, because Yankee owner George Steinbrenner was not Jewish and had no Jewish ancestors.

    In sharp contrast with the total immunity granted to Reggie Jackson, “Jimmy the Greek” was immediately fired from his job as a sports commentator because he said that African-Americans have superior athletic abilities because of their history as slaves – which is not an insult, but a compliment.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggie_Jackson
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Steinbrenner
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Snyder_(sports_commentator)

    =========================================
    Articles about American anti-Semitism:

    www.algemeiner.com/2018/02/01/at-least-five-imams-in-america-have-called-for-the-death-of-jews-wheres-the-outrage/

    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/01/guest-post-seven-times-stronger.html

    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2017/01/guest-post-jewish-nyc-mayor.html

    =========================================
    How to Convict the New York Times
    of Unfair Bias Against Israel:


    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/11/guest-post-nyt-erases-israel-from-map.html

    http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/03/guest-postnyt-vs-israel.html

    https://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/11/guest-post-how-to-convict-new-york-times.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. John Shultz the penultimate Kappo.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Starbucks' CEO Kevin Johnson has the same problem all leftist have - a total lack of consistency. Leftists have no permeant solid moral foundation which acts as a touchstone for their thinking or their actions. They will embrace the latest philosophical flavor of the day, even if it is diametrically opposed to what they say they believed the day before, provided it will garner them the power they so desperately and insanely desire to control everyone’s life. As for these appeasing myrmidons, like Kevin Johnson, they are a disgrace and will follow blindly down whatever path they’re told to follow ultimately leading to social disaster. That’s history, and that history is incontestable.

    ReplyDelete
  7. "Starbucks Fights Racism, Bows to Anti-Semitism"

    Ah, but think of the advantage. Maybe the religion of peace will delete Starbucks from their To Bomb list.

    This is yet another example of the Selective Morality and double-standards of the pharisees on the left.

    Racism is strictly Whitey Being Mean to Blacks (or non-whites, if you prefer). But feel free to put people out of business for adhering to their religious principles.

    Fascism is conservatives trying to attend a Trump rally in an orderly fashion. But go ahead and set fire to any building where a conservative is trying to deliver a lecture. That's social justice.

    Calling Hillary a liar is misogyny. But holding a sign that says, Rape Melania is just you using your 1st A right.

    And hate speech is strictly any criticism of the left, no matter how slight. But if you want to insult a president in the most obscene manner, and compare him to Hitler, because you don't agree with him, knock yourself out.

    I could go on ad infinitum, but we all know the rest.

    I don't know about you, but I am sick to death, fed to the back teeth, with being lectured on morality by these ignorant, racist, knee-jerk haters. Talk about the pig preaching about hygiene!

    ReplyDelete
  8. "The post-King era has erroneously conflated racial tribalism with civil rights. Its civil rights leaders are invariably black nationalists and that’s why they find it so hard to resist Farrakhan’s racist supremacism."
    Bingo!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Infidel7/5/18

    Thinking about this issue today, my view was, these deadbeats don't "get" that such a business is not a social welfare agency. They seem to have a sense of entitlement, like they should be allowed to use the facilities without being paying customers. A business needs to make a profit to stay in business, allowing a bunch of deadbeats to move in and take over would mean the end of the business.

    ReplyDelete
  10. The ADL carried water for Obama and worked with Ben Rhodes to push the Iran deal. The ADL recently excoriated Canary Mission for anonymously pointing out campus antisemitism in their own words w/o injecting their own polemic. The ADL is pro J-Street, pro SJP, pro JVP and pro BDS. The ADL and BLM, the women's march, Hamas, Iran and Starbucks all deserve one another. I hope they slaughter one another to the last one standing.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous7/5/18

    Time for Sinister Louie Farraklan to be kicked to the gutter with his Hate group called the nation of islamofascism.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

You May Also Like