A decent test to see if what that manager did at Starbucks is racism or not is whether he'd have allowed white people use the restroom or loiter without buying anything.
Should be simple enough to find out.
It's hard to discuss this without coming across as racist, but... here we go.
My culture, lily white that it is, sees "restroom for customers only" and buys something.
When asked to leave, we leave.
For a long time we've been cultivating this stupid multi-cultural bullshit. This is, unfortunately, reaping what was sown.
The two people who were "discriminated" against don't seem to be aware of how the cultural assumptions in play were supposed to work.
From what I've read, they asked to use the restroom, were denied its use then turned around and hung out for a period of time that was long enough for the manager to stick his neck out and ask if they intended to make a purchase.
They declined to make that purchase.
The manager, following Starbuck's procedures, called the cops and had them "trespassed".
Again, in my culture it would never have escalated to the manager having to ask me if I was going to buy anything. There'd have been a charcoal flavored coffee beverage at my hand already before I sat down to socialize with my friend.
This is not a case of racism, this is a clash of cultures.
The ultimate cure, really, is to educate these subcultures what the larger culture expects of them with regards to behavior. The ideal solution is a single culture... no wait, monoculture trends to stagnation.
I don't consider my ultimate cure as racism, because I am damn sure expected to be aware of what all of these subcultures find offensive and make great pains to avoid giving offense.
The time has come where they need to learn what offends me and start avoiding it.
This is a problem that leads to a great deal of friction between blacks and non-blacks...particularly when you're speaking of "ghetto" blacks. Behavior that is unexceptionable in the ghetto, like talking and yelling through a movie or hanging around a business without buying anything, doesn't go over well in the big outside world, and when confronted about it, those guilty of it get very shirty. Not least because failure to resent and resist any encroachment whatsoever in the ghetto is an invitation to endless victimization.
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