One place to meet and discuss the significance of Roseanne Barr being fired for a racist tweet would have been the local coffee shop — but not Starbucks. All 8,000 company-owned locations closed Tuesday afternoon for racial sensitivity training.
Do those two events — Barr is punished while Starbucks reassesses — constitute progress in the struggle against discrimination? Or are they signs of the depths of bigotry and hate in America? Many lattes could be sipped over such a conversation.
Barr, a comedian with a long history of controversy, had her television show canceled by ABC after she made a vile comment on social media about Valerie Jarrett, a former adviser to President Barack Obama. As part of a strange political rant, Barr said Jarrett was the offspring of the “Muslim Brotherhood &Planet of the Apes.” ABC President Channing Dungey reacted quickly: “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.”
Coincidentally, the network made its announcement just before Starbucks shut to provide its 175,000 employees with several hours of anti-bias training. The company scheduled the program after two African-American men were arrested for trespassing at a Philadelphia Starbucks in April because they hadn’t purchased any items. The two were waiting for a third person to arrive for a business meeting.
Corporations exist to make profits, not change the world, so the response to controversy generally is to hope it fades quickly. Typically, the goal of any response is to protect the brand’s reputation and not lose customers. Sometimes, though, events blow up in a way that puts a high-profile company at the center of a big social and political moment, which is what happened with ABC and Starbucks: Both companies took decisive actions to combat allegations of racism at a time when broader issues of discrimination, including racism and sexism, are galvanizing and dividing the country.
Why now? Police using excessive force against African-Americans led to national anthem protests at NFL games. President Donald Trump’s criticism of the anthem protests then spurred a larger demonstration by players. Trump’s remarks, true to his history of tone deaf and equivocal remarks about race, provide an opening for hate mongers to seek legitimacy.
The link between the era of Trump and Barr’s TV show is direct. Her show, a reboot of “Roseanne,” the working-class comedy set in a fictional Illinois town, was a slice of life from Trump’s America. Barr is a Trump supporter and so is her character. On Twitter, Barr has promoted conspiracy theories that put her in the company of bigots and extremists.
ABC was willing to absorb some controversy to air “Roseanne.” But Barr’s tweet was inexcusable. The company stepped up and fired one of its stars. Starbucks also did the right thing in making a high-profile commitment to training its employees to guard against “unconscious bias.”
Back to our coffeehouse debate: Hate and intolerance will always exist, but a society that resolves to combat discrimination is moving in the right direction. ABC and Starbucks deserve plaudits. It will be an exquisite irony if, by the end of Trump’s problematic time in office, America has taken many bold steps to be a fairer nation.
— Chicago Tribune
