Subject: Forced Inclusion Won’t Solve Our Problems with Bigotry Thu May 10, 2018 5:46 am
his article originally appeared on the Foundation for Economic Education. Like most people I know and legions I don't know, I reacted with outrage to the case of two black men expelled from a Starbucks in Philadelphia. They were waiting for a third party before ordering, and asked to use the bathroom. Starbucks's policy is not clear, but lingering customers are certainly welcome. What seems clear is that the two young men might not have been asked to leave and arrested if they had been of the right color. They were later released and the police apologized. My moral outrage was vindicated, with a vengeance. The inclusivity crowd exploded with anger, perhaps even more so because Starbucks has made "inclusion and diversity" a battle and marketing cry. Remember three years ago when the company introduced a program to start conversations about race with customers? After Philadelphia, the company promised to close the 8,000 U.S. company-owned stores for an afternoon of racial-bias education.