Friday, March 29, 2024

USA Today Unites with Starbucks’ ‘Race Together’ Campaign

starbucks race together cup*Although Starbucks is taking the brunt of the criticism for it’s “Race Together” campaign, USA Today has been just as active in the effort.

Richard Prince’s Journal-isms notes that the publication debuted the first of a series of special sections addressing race relations in its Friday (March 20) edition. The section was also available as a standalone this past weekend at Starbucks stores nationwide.

In a joint statement released Thursday, USA Today president and publisher Larry Kramer and Starbucks Howard Schultz detailed the motivation for their alliance: “committed to telling the story of the changing face of America.”

“We used our graphical and human storytelling strengths to help our readers better understand the underlying issues that have brought us to this place. We examined our nation, community by community, to help every American learn about each other and rise above bias.

“What more can we do together?” they stated, while adding that the campaign was designed “to stimulate conversation, compassion and action around race in America. Over the next year we plan to do just that, using all of our strengths in publishing and in stores across America.

“Our companies share a philosophy: Elevating diversity is the right thing to do, but it is also a necessity. Our nation is only becoming more diverse. To ignore, dismiss or fail to productively engage our differences is to stifle our collective potential. Diversity of thought and skills lead to more creative ideas and higher performance. Bias, even unintentional slights, sap our potential for shared prosperity while denying our shared humanity . . . .”

Nichelle Smith, a staffer with the newspaper and its executive vice president and general manager Derek Murphy, is overseeing USA Today’s role in the “Race Together” campaign. Smith and Murphy are both African Americans.

Journal-isms cited a story from USA Today writer Bruce Horovitz, who noted that Starbucks’ announcement of a 2-for-1 stock split on Wednesday (March 18) was overshadowed by “more than 90 minutes “of the company’s annual meeting being focused on plans to “directly address race relations in America” as well as respond on the intense backlash of the campaign on social media.

“But the split was discussed for only a few minutes. Schultz and other supporters spent more than 90 minutes laying out the foundation for — and responding to heated social media criticism of — the company’s plans to directly address the issue of race relations in America. This week, Starbucks baristas were given the option of writing the words ‘Race Together’ on customer cups to encourage conversation on racial issues. Schultz directly responded to the social media firestorm that has caused,” Horovitz wrote.

“’There will be cynics and some in the media who criticize Starbucks,’ said Schultz. ‘This is not some marketing or PR exercise. This is to do one thing: use our national footprint and scale for good.’ . . .”

The criticism apparently managed to get at Starbucks enough that the employees for chain’s baristas would no longer write “Race Together” on the cups of customers.

Or did it?

According to Starbucks spokesman Jim Olson, the move, which went into effect Sunday (March 22), was all part of the plan to end the cup messages that day as efforts are now focused on expanding it more broadly.

“Nothing is changing. It’s all part of the cadence of the timeline we originally planned,” Olsen said

A memo from Schultz added that the cups were “just the catalyst” for a larger conversation on race as Starbucks will continue to hold forum discussions, co-produce special sections in USA TODAY as well as work on putting more stores in minority communities as part of the Race Together” campaign.

The effort has been met with widespread criticism since it started last week, Journal-isms stated, adding that Starbucks has been labeled as “opportunistic and inappropriate” for starting the campaign amid “racially charged events such as national protests over police killings of black males.”

For more on USA Today’s alliance with Starbucks in the “Race Together” campaign, click here.

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