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After overpaying for your daily dose of caffeine at Starbucks, you probably also noticed something else scribbled on the side of the cup, other than your misspelled name.

In an effort to encourage baristas — the fancy term for coffee makers we’ve all learned, thanks to Starbucks — to talk to consumers about race relations in the U.S., Starbucks employees were asked to write the slogan #RaceTogether on drink cups.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz began the #RaceTogether initiative, and encouraged employees in all of Starbucks’ 20,000-plus locations to join in. According to Schultz, the message was meant to be “just the catalyst” for a broad conversation about race relations in this country.

It’s no secret that race relations have been a prominent source of news headlines and dinner-table conversations across America. In New York, racial tensions arose after an African-American man, Eric Garner, died during a struggle with police while being arrested in Staten Island.

But is the coffee shop really the place to be forcibly prompted to discuss race relations?

The #RaceTogether campaign suffered, in my opinion, well-deserved public backlash from the start. The anger expressed across the nation was so strong that it forced senior Starbucks executives to temporarily suspend Twitter accounts after the criticism went viral. Shortly after, the #RaceTogether initiative was ended altogether.

This was an ill-conceived plan from the start. Let’s face it: Nobody wants to talk to a stranger about discrimination before they’ve had their morning cup of coffee!

First off, Starbucks charges too much for coffee. It’s fine if people want to pay those prices, but to subject them to a so-called discussion on race is ludicrous. People need coffee before conversation.

A stunt like this also makes me wonder whether this was really about discrimination and social justice, or just a ploy to sell more coffee. Also, did you know that 16 of the company’s 19 top executives are white? Maybe it’s time for Starbucks to have a conversation of its own.

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