April 8, 2015
Page 7
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O PINION
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Forming trust
key to success
B ENTLEY DE B ARDELABEN
Recent-
ly, Starbucks
CEO Howard
Schultz asked
baristas at his
12,000
cof-
fee houses to
begin conver-
sations about
race with their
customers. They were asked to in-
scribe the hashtag #RaceTogether
on cups of coffee and engage in
a conversation with customers as
they awaited their beverage. While
these actions may have been well
intentioned, it elicited strong push
back from people all across the
Y
nation, particularly in the world of
social media. One week later, the
campaign was ended.
So what went wrong? One im-
portant component that was miss-
in
ing in this initiative was trust.
S
Starbucks is known for selling
h high-end coffee and tea. Hav-
in
ing conversations about a sen-
s sitive and sacred topic such as
r race, while extremely import-
a ant, is something that requires
r relationships with more depth
th
than your typical customer ser-
v vice interaction. Starbucks is
not a respected authority or think
tank on race relations. People do
not enter their local coffee shop
expecting to engage in challeng-
ing or “out of the box” conversa-
tions.
To his credit, Mr. Schultz ini-
tiated internal company conver-
sations about race shortly after
the killing of Michael Brown in
Ferguson, Mo. His desire to start
a conversation about something
which affects and stirs up a range
of emotions for many was honor-
able. Howard Schultz is a power-
ful man.
How he chose to use his posi-
WLRQ RI LQÀXHQFH ZDV QREOH %XW
the decision to implement a con-
versation at the local store level
was not wise, at least not in my
humble opinion.
As a person who has facilitat-
ed many conversations on “race,
racism, and reconciliation,” one
of the keys to having a successful
discussion is establishing a form
of trust. Without such a bond,
the outcome will likely not go as
planned.
More importantly, I do not
believe the burden to have this
deeply personal and sacred con-
versation should have been placed
on baristas who might fear losing
their employment if they do not
comply with company policy, or
on the consumer who entered the
store seeking to purchase a prod-
uct. Hence, the mega tidal wave of
displeasure from Starbucks con-
sumers in the tweetersphere.
In 2008, when the debate about
race and racism was injected into
our nation’s electoral debate, the
United Church of Christ respond-
ed by developing a resource enti-
tled Sacred Conversation on Race.
It was developed for churches and
organizations to utilize if they de-
sired to have a conversation on
race, but perhaps did not know
how to begin.
We selected the word sacred
because we believed it was im-
portant to include prayer and
make space for God in these dis-
cussions. We also believed each
person’s story was a sacred gift
to be valued. I invite you to draw
upon this resource as well. I, like
Mr. Schultz, believe that this is an
important conversation to have
and can be healing for our com-
munities. Perhaps our churches
might be a better, perhaps safer,
space to prayerfully engage these
GLI¿FXOWTXHVWLRQVWKDQWKHPRUQ-
ing coffee line.
Learn more about the UCC
Sacred Conversations on Race at
8&&RUJVDFUHGFRQYHUVDWLRQ
The Rev. Bentley de Bardelaben
is executive for administration
and communications for the Unit-
ed Church of Christ’s Justice and
Witness Ministries.
Why I Applaud Levi Pettit for Confronting Racism
Important step
against bigotry
E ARL O FARI H UTCHINSON
Former Okla-
homa University
fraternity mem-
ber Levi Pettit
recently stood
before a bank
of cameras and
microphones
ÀDQNHGE\DEHY\RIEODFNHOHFWHG
RI¿FLDOVPLQLVWHUVDQGFLYLOULJKWV
leaders at a black church in Okla-
homa City. He apologized for his
racially insensitive acts and igno-
rance.
This was the act of a sincere
young man who has been battered
from pillar to post after the video
surfaced of he, and his frat pals,
carousing on a bus and shouting
racist epithets. For speaking out,
he has been the butt of snickers,
GHULVLRQ DQG ÀDW RXW FRQGHPQD-
tion. The African-American lead-
ers who stood with and behind
him haven’t been spared the vit-
riol either. They’ve been the ob-
ject of vicious name calling and
attacks for having the temerity to
back him in his mea culpa.
Pettit though doesn’t deserve
condemnation, he deserves praise.
He and his fraternity were boot-
ed from the university. His name
and that of his family has been
dragged deep through the mud.
He’ll remain for some time the
poster boy for offensive and dis-
gusting frat racial antics whenev-
er some wayward fraternity inev-
itably engages in them. He could
have stood on the prior statement
BY
of apology and regret that he is-
sued after the tape went viral and
set off a national howl. He could
have easily melted into the student
woodwork somewhere, completed
his studies, and gone on about
his business. But he didn’t. In-
stead, he went very public with
his apology and pledge to ac-
tion.
Despite the lambaste of him
and the racial put downs and
myopia of the detractors, this
is an important step forward. The
public outing of the fraternity
came the same week that a study
was released on racial attitudes of
the millennials. The study found
that young whites under 30 are no
more enlightened in their racial
views especially of blacks than
their parents.
For example, when respondents
were asked, “How much needs to
be done in order to achieve Mar-
tin Luther King’s dream of racial
equality?” There was a huge gap
in how they answered the question
as opposed to young respondents
of color. 42 percent of whites an-
swered that “a lot” must be done
to achieve racial equality, which
was almost identical to the percent
that answered the same of white
Gen Xers and 44 percent of white
baby boomers.
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pretty much to an AP survey on
racial attitudes toward minorities
that was conducted in October
2012. That survey found that in
the four-year period from a prior
AP survey on racial attitudes in
2008 a clear majority of whites
(56 percent) expressed animus
toward blacks. The jump in an-
ti-black racial sentiment came de-
VSLWHQHDUO\IRXU\HDUVLQRI¿FHRI
an African-American president.
It’s been the rare day that’s
passed in the now more than six
years that Obama has been in the
White House that there hasn’t
EHHQDUDFLDOO\LQÀDPPDWRU\YLG-
eo, photo, a sign, or some public
¿JXUH SRSSLQJ RII RQ UDFH WKDW
has made a headline somewhere.
When it does, the predictable hap-
pens. The battle lines get quick-
ly drawn, countless individuals
jam websites and chat room and
boards to downplay, or worse con-
demn the critics of the actions as
being too sensitive, thin skinned,
or slamming them for playing the
race card with their denunciation
of a racial dig or taunt. The Okla-
homa University frat debacle was
a near textbook example of that.
Levitt and his pals were proper-
ly condemned for their antics and
given the boot from the campus. Yet
they had legions of defenders too
that accused the university of not
giving them due process, violating
their free speech, and for a rush to
judgment in summarily expelling
them. Many more even expressed
sympathy with them for being
harshly treated. And some even
commiserated with their parents for
their alleged suffering and ordeal.
The fact that you have one stu-
dent offender who did not play to
that gate, claim victimization, and
accepted fully responsibility for
his racial offensive action, is cause
for much hope; hope that someone
actually got it, and is willing to
lend a public face, their face, to
those who express their disgust at
racial bigotry. It’s even better that
this comes from a young person
that legions of young people can
more readily identify with than
all the sermons on racial tolerance
from those of the older generation,
and especially civil rights leaders.
Their sermons are like water off a
ducks back to many of them. We
don’t need more surveys on race
relations to know that they hav-
en’t had much meaning too far too
many young people such as Pettit.
Pettit did the right thing when
he spoke out and so did the black
leaders who stood behind him, en-
couraged and ultimately embraced
him. For that, I applaud and will
continue to applaud Pettit.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an au-
thor and political analyst.