What's really disappointing to see is that more and more companies are capitulating
to the right wing crusade against Pride Month and the LGBTQ community.
Particularly now, we're seeing starbucks,
which has marketed itself as progressive over the years,
is only the latest to do so, they're following in Target's footsteps.
Starbucks Workers United took to Twitter today to shine a light
on what's going on at Starbucks.
Their first tweet here reads, BREAKING, in the middle of Pride Month,
Starbucks BANS Pride decorations in stores across the United States.
And they followed that up with some more information,
taking a cue from Target, who bowed to anti-LGBTQ+ pressure and
removed pride merchandise, corporate and district management are taking
down the pride decorations that have become an annual tradition in stores.
And I wanna say for a second, as a member of the queer community,
it's not the top of my priority list that corporations pander to me,
because they're not doing it because they actually care about queer rights.
But one thing that's concerning about this to me is they're willing to
capitulate to far right wing narratives about LGBTQ people.
They're willing to walk back their support of the community, even if it was
just to sell more coffee or to sell more items in the $5 section at Target.
They're willing to walk that back in service of right wing narratives,
and that is something that we should be concerned about.
And Starbucks not only betrayed its queer employees by taking down the Pride
decorations, but they also exposed the company's double standards for
union busting.
So Starbucks Workers United tweeted, in union stores where Starbucks claims
they are unable to make quote, unilateral changes, without bargaining,
the company took down Pride decorations and
flags anyway- ignoring their own anti-union talking.
One of the main talking points they were putting forth was that you won't be
able to have direct communication with the company,
you won't be able to have direct communication with your boss.
All decisions are going to have to go through your union rep.
But apparently that's only convenient to say when it's a talking point, who
wants to have direct communication with their boss anyway [LAUGH] is beyond me.
But when it comes to enforcing their anti-LGBTQ policies now,
you don't have to worry, it's not gonna go through your union rep,
we're gonna step right in and do what we want.
But I think one good point was made by Will Menaker of Chapo Trap House,
He pointed out on Twitter.
He said, I think they're aware that among their mostly young employees who
are interested in or care about politics, there's a big circle diagram of cares
about gay and trans rights and cares about forming a union.
If they can make it less hospitable, they'll do it in any way they can.
And I know some of you might be hearing this or reading this and
thinking it's a bit of a reach but
we've seen Starbucks go to extreme lengths to squash unionizing efforts.
We've seen them go to heinous [LAUGH] extremes to stop
the unionization in their stores.
It wouldn't surprise me at all if this was another.
At the very least, it has the added effect of diminishing
the people who might want to work for the company from joining, and
those people happen to be more likely to be left wing and more likely to unionize.
But Jackson, it's really disappointing to see these organizations
capitulate to these right wingers.
>> Well, I think there are several important points, and the first one is
that this capitulation is incredibly unnecessary for a variety of reasons.
One, because the queer community by and
large has become accepted within the United States, not fully, but
as you pointed out, the loud group is a smaller representation than the majority.
The queer community is accepted in this country enough to the point that even
people who may have a little bit of prejudices, we all know them,
they may keep them quieter to themselves.
So I say that to say capitulating to a group that actually isn't very large
within the country really doesn't have anything to do with their sales.
Because at the end of the day, caffeine is a drug and people ain't
gonna stop drinking caffeine, people aren't gonna stop consuming caffeine.
You know [LAUGH] what I'm saying?
The people who are really loud about,
they have pride flags in the Starbucks line, what is that, one out of 30 people,
one out of 50 people on some type of real ratio.
So it was incredibly unnecessary.
And I think that also this goes to show that sometimes in
life we don't have a spine, sometimes in life we have to develop courage.
We have to develop the ability to stand up for ourselves through experience and
hardship.
But once you develop the ability to have a spine,
you realize that most people really ain't going to do nothing about it.
And so this is another situation where it's like,
who cares about these people whining and griping?
They ain't going to do nothing about it if you all keep the pride flags,
what they going to do?
Stop getting a crack?
Stop getting a cocaine?
No, they're not going to do that.
So I think that it's just stupid all around.
>> Yeah, I mean, even Kid Rock's bar has Bud Light in it again,
and nobody seems to care.
And I mean, Starbucks does claim that they did not capitulate and
that they are still encouraging pride things or pride displays in their stores,
but that seems to be not the case in practicality.
And while I totally think you're right Jackson, that it doesn't really affect
their bottom line, at least when it comes to a drug like coffee and
the Starbucks on every corner, I think that seems to be all that these
companies calculus is, is which one is gonna affect my money?
What's gonna affect the bottom line?
I can picture them in a boardroom right now being like, okay,
supporting gay people, this much coffee sales, not supporting the gay community,
this much coffee sales.
Someone new in the back is like,
quick question, what about the values that we have as a company?
And should we actually be human beings- >> [LAUGH]
>> And stand for something,
like shut up with your values- >> [LAUGH]
>> [INAUDIBLE] Numbers here supporting
which side sells more damn beans.
Fire the newbie, get them out of here.
>> [LAUGH] >> Unless they're gay,
in which case it might get out,
in which case we need to make sure we handle that proper.
>> [LAUGH] Exactly.
And I think too, just lastly, I think that was really good.
But just to focus on how much this country is short term minded,
you know what I mean, in terms of all that short term gripe that people are making.
It affect our sales, shut that guy up in the back room over one month,
literally one month that they can't stand up for something.
So- >> Right.
>> Yeah. >> Yeah, and
I think that's really just shown by the fact that anytime you look at
the Bud Light profits, they haven't gone down the way right wingers would have you
believe [LAUGH] that they've gone down?
[LAUGH] >> No, absolutely not.
And more importantly, they do branding campaigns with what hundreds of people
a year all over the world, [LAUGH].
>> Right.
>> So this is just a very short moment in time that they want and
they complain about.
>> Yeah, but I mean, also on the flip side of that,
I said this earlier with you Ray on the other show, but
how dare the people at Bud Light give a commemorative Kent to a human being?
>> [LAUGH] >> Right.
>> How dare they? >> [LAUGH]
>> How dare they do that?
What do they think people are?
People? I'm tired of companies
going woke- >> [LAUGH]
>> And thinking that people are people,
people aren't people.
>> [LAUGH] >> People are sources of revenue.
>> Correct. >> [LAUGH]
>> [LAUGH]