In the latest absurd, disheartening, and frightening turn in the Major Corporation Bootlicking For Bigots saga, Starbucks is no longer allowing their staff members to decorate for Pride. It was already disturbing to see other corporations backtrack on their alleged allyship, such as when Target pulled all of their Pride merchandise off the shelves in order to appease “outraged” conservatives. To see that this trend is only continuing to affect other businesses is incredibly unsettling:
Though the company itself has made no statement regarding this, for the past two weeks, workers at various locations have been reporting that their upper management has been forcing them to remove any and all Pride decorations.
On the surface, Starbucks always fronted as a supportive business, but with its history of union-busting, perhaps this should, unfortunately, come as no surprise. The corporation is now really showing its true colors as an entity that cares only for profits, and apparently that translates to sucking up to this current uptick of hateful, anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. It also comes as no surprise (again, unfortunately) that unionized stores are being the most affected by this ban.
As some replies indicated, there is a chance that unionized stores could call the legality of this into question, especially if freedom of expression was an essential part of their demands. However, this would likely be the steepest of uphill battles, considering the process of unionizing any Starbucks has often been a hard-fought, hard-won battle.
What I find especially saddening about this particular situation is the fact that many young queer kids seek barista jobs as their entry into the working world, and in many small towns, Starbucks are their only avenues for doing so. I personally sought these jobs, as did many of my friends, and even now when I visit my hometown and drop by the local Starbucks, I can see it’s mostly staffed by queer folks. It’s utterly cruel and cowardly to turn on them yet again, and especially in this context.
News site The New Republic made a salient observation in pointing out that this caving was entirely premature. It’s not like any Starbucks location received bomb threats, as some Target locations did (which doesn’t absolve Target’s ban whatsoever, to be clear). The company decided to act in direct favor of their most hateful audience, because it’s easier to just tune out the noise and make easy money than actually have a backbone, isn’t it?
In doing so, what they’re doing is letting these people know that expressing their uncontrolled, unfounded, utterly malicious outrage will ultimately get them what they want. And to what end? There is no sense to these demands, and they will only continue down a path of illogical rage, hurting everyone along the way.
The (often frustrating) thing about the capitalist world we live in is that these major corporations do have a fair amount of power in changing and affecting social narratives, yet the people in charge are either too ignorant to realize this, or they just well and truly couldn’t care less. The only way to get them to hear us is to be loudly in opposition of awful moves like this.
(featured image: Peter Dazeley/Getty Images)
