SZA Wants to Boycott Starbucks After Company Bans BLM Attire For Employees
Boycott Starbucks was trending on social media on Thursday and the T.D.E. first lady is getting behind the movement. SZA took to Twitter to respond to a leaked internal memo from Starbucks that revealed company policy that bans employees from wearing Black Lives Matter attire.
“Also we boycotting Starbucks. DROP THE NAME OF BLACK OWNED COFFEE SHOPS AND TEA BRANDS BELOW,” SZA posted on Twitter. Fellow R&B singer Ari Lennox retweeted SZA’s post and asked the same of her followers to name drop Black-owned coffee shops.
Buzzfeed obtained a copy of the memo which in many ways is contradictory of the companies past endorsements. The memo writes off BLM attire (t-shirts, buttons, etc) as “political” attire that could “potentially incite violence,” according to Buzzfeed.
Employees who spoke with Buzzfeed News noted that the company has never taken issue with employees wearing buttons or t-shirts supporting LGBTQ rights and has even gone as far as handing out attire in support of the LGBTQ community.
It was just two years ago that Starbucks closed 8,000 if its stores nationwide for racial bias training after a franchise in Philadelphia became a headline for calling the police on two Black men conducting a business meeting inside the store.
Their arrest caused protests in the city and eventually an undisclosed settlement with the businessmen who were arrested.
SZA as a native of New Jersey also called out a specific franchise in South Orange that banned BLM imagery from its stores.