Starbucks has permitted its employees to wear clothes and accessories that support Black Lives Matter. The company responded to criticism and calls for boycott after it banned it’s members of staff from wearing T-shirts and lapel pins that support the movement.
Starbucks said in a bulletin last week that employees were not allowed to wear items that support Black Lives Matter as it violated the dress code policy of the company.
The bulletin said members of staff were “not permitted to wear buttons or pins that advocate a political, religious or personal issue”.
It also said that the Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion of Starbucks, Nzinga Shaw talked in an internal video why clothes that highlighted Black Lives Matter is against the policy of the company.
It read: “[Shaw] explains there are agitators who misconstrue that fundamental principles of the Black Lives Matter movement – and in certain circumstances, intentionally repurpose them to amplify divisiveness.”
Starbucks came under heavy criticism for supporting the Black Lives Matter movement publicly and privately telling members of staff not to wear clothes and accessories that support the campaign.
While responding to the criticism, Starbucks said it would design and share 250,000 T-shirts that exhibit series of protest picket signs which include one that exhibits “Black Lives Matter”.
During the policy reversal announcement, Starbucks said: “These are alarming, uncertain times, and people everywhere are hurting. You’ve told us you need to express yourself at work, asking: ‘Do you understand how I feel? Do you understand the black community is in pain? We see you. We hear you. Black lives matter. That is a fact and will never change.”
Starbucks also announced before the criticism that it wants to donate $1m to “organizations promoting racial equity and more inclusive and just communities”.
