Starbucks’ foray into race relations is now over. In a memo to employees this weekend, CEO Howard Shultz defended the company’s controversial “Race Together” campaign to start conversations about race among customers by having baristas to write the words on cups of coffee:
Our objective from the very start of this effort… was to stimulate conversation, empathy and compassion toward one another, and then to broaden that dialogue beyond just our Starbucks family to the greater American public by using our scale for good …The heart of Race Together has always been about humanity: the promise of the American Dream should be available to every person in this country, not just a select few. We leaned in because we believed that starting this dialogue is what matters most. We are learning a lot.
Though Schultz acknowledged the criticism of the campaign, his memo insinuated that the backlash wasn’t the reason for the initiative ending, saying Sunday was when they “originally planned” to call it quits …
