I believe Phillip Haid got it right in his Fast Company piece,  Starbucks’s Race Together: Why The Naysayers Have It All Wrong.

While the Starbucks response may not be perfect, CEO Howard Schultz’s action is an example of a courageous leader stepping out to engage his employees and customer base around a topic –race– that often seems like a no-go-zone.  Especially for whites. So it is refreshing to see a prominent white male leader take a stand. We need more whites to stand up alongside of our colleagues of color to engage one another in thoughtful, reflective dialogue about the impact of race in the US and around the globe.

As we have seen for decades, when the issues of race and racial equity are ceded to people of color, it gives whites a pass from ever taking any proactive action to engage one another.  One criticism of Schultz and Starbucks is that their response is self-serving or a marketing play. For decades, people of color around the globe have faced a similar “self-interest” accusation whenever they waded into race. It’s about time we whites start to take up the slack and initiate more dialogue.  Race is a human issue, not a people of color issue. While race is socially constructed, the devastating effects of racial inequity continue to negatively impact people of color in ways that most whites do not directly experience or often even notice because of the implicit bias directed to people based on skin color.

I find it refreshing that Schulz and Starbucks have taken simple, yet bold steps to engage in dialogue. It is unfortunate, yet predictable, that many on social media immediately moved to mock or condemn Schultz and Starbucks for their actions. While others are certainly entitled to their opinion, I see Schultz”s actions more from the lens of what President Teddy Roosevelt once said:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.  The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again…. because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion, spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never tasted victory or defeat.”