Starbucks, the world's biggest coffee chain, has told its employees not to wear accessories or clothes mentioning the Black Lives Matter movement, reminding them that doing so would violate the company's dress code policy which prohibits accessories that advocate a "political, religious or personal issue."

An internal memo sent to Starbucks employees last week, obtained by BuzzFeed News, cited Nzinga Shaw, vice president of Inclusion and Diversity, as saying "there are agitators who misconstrue the fundamental principles of the Black Lives Matter movement — and in certain circumstances, intentionally repurpose them to amplify divisiveness."

Numerous employees told BuzzFeed, however, that the coffee chain regularly allows and, on some occasions, even encourages its staff to don accessories celebrating LGBTQ+ rights and marriage equality.

"Starbucks LGBTQ+ partners wear LGBTQ+ pins and shirts, that also could incite and create violent experiences amongst partners and customers," Benson, a black transgender employee at Starbucks, told the news outlet. "We have partners who experienced harassment and transphobia/homophobia for wearing their pins and shirts, and Starbucks still stands behind them."

DW has reached out to Starbucks to confirm the authenticity of the internal memo.

Boycott calls

The internal memo comes just days after Starbucks, just like many other prominent corporates, came out in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, which has gathered steam once again following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The company laid out some of the measures it was taking to promote racial equality.

The BuzzFeed report caused an immediate backlash on social media with users calling for a boycott of the coffee chain that has often touted its progressive ideals but has been found wanting on a few occasions. 

 

Repeat offender?

In 2018, the coffee chain was flailed after a Philadelphia store employee had two African-American men arrested when they refused to leave the store after their request to use the restroom was denied. The employee reasoned that the two men were not allowed to use the restroom because they had not bought anything.

The arrests prompted a major backlash against the coffee chain across the United States. Starbucks Chief Executive Kevin Johnson apologized for the incident, calling it a "reprehensible outcome." The company later closed its stores in the US for one day to conduct training to address implicit bias.

Days after the Philadelphia incident, a black man in Los Angeles accused Starbucks of racism, claiming he was denied access to a restroom, even though a white man was allowed to use one. Both had not bought anything at the store.

Starbucks, which claims to sell fair-trade coffee, has also been occasionally accused of using beans picked by enslaved people. An investigation by Thomson Reuters Foundation published in December last year showed that coffee produced by modern slaves was being stamped slavery-free by top certification schemes and being sold at a premium to brands such as Starbucks.