https://www.instagram.com/p/BHws3m0jFti/
As the Black Lives Matter movement gains more and more momentum in the wake of the tragic deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, people are finding that they can show their support of the cause even outside of the official scheduled protests. And they’re taking their activism to a very unlikely place: Starbucks.
What does the coffee chain — the one famously mocked for inviting its baristas to engage in casual misguided conversations about race with customers — with a movement focused on making sure that America understands that black lives are in danger? It all comes down to the fact that the chain requires a name be provided for each order so the customer knows that they’re getting the right drink. And while consumers have played around with this imperative in the past, they’re taking it much more seriously now, telling baristas their name is “Black Lives Matter” so that whoever’s shouting out names has no choice but to yell out the group’s moniker when handing out orders.
Mic reports that after Lex Cross posted the idea on Facebook late last week, it quickly went viral.
But Cross’ post wasn’t the only one. Soon, Mic reports, others started posting their own calls to action and people all over Twitter began expressing enthusiasm for this kind of “everyday activism.” It’s easy to do, doesn’t require a great deal of effort (an important factor for those who might be wary of going to an actual protest), and gets the message across without any kind of confrontation. One of the biggest issues we can foresee? That people are gonna get their orders all mixed up. According to one barista who spoke to Mic, there were a lot of people giving their names as “Black Lives Matter” during one of her shifts:
One Chicago-based Starbucks barista who wished to remain anonymous said she counted 43 customers who gave their names as “Black Lives Matter” during her Sunday shift. “I immediately started counting during my shift once the third person did it,” she said on Twitter through a direct message.
The reaction was mixed. “Just by reading facial expressions I could tell some were touched by it, even cracked a smile, and seemed warm about it,” she said. But others customers — and baristas — were less amused. “It was easy to see how uncomfortable [other] people were. I noticed a couple roll their eyes here and there.”
Well, that’s kind of what protesting is all about, isn’t it? Making it inconvenient for people not otherwise affected by important issues to continue ignoring them. And considering that Starbucks already set a precedent with their aforementioned “Race Together” campaign, it doesn’t seem unfitting to take the protest there.
Of course, some people are worried, both about their safety and “sounding dumb.” One barista responded to the idea by letting the world know that she (and others like her) just weren’t cool with calling out the name, even if they weren’t against the message:
https://twitter.com/blasianFMA/status/752196519277764608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Is it any more humiliating than having to scream out “Katniss Everdeen” and wait awkwardly until the person who put that name on their cup a) remembers that they’re the ones who did it because they were being clever, and b) works up the nerve to scream “I volunteer as tribute!”? Only time will tell.
A bigger worry than that, though, is that people who are against the message will give their names as “All Lives Matter” or something more inflammatory in order to stoke direct confrontation. That? It could get messy.
