RE: Starbucks And Bathrooms: A Tale Of Manufactured Outrage
I think there is a subconscious bias against African-Americans in some parts of the country, usually areas where people of other races were raised to be afraid of men of their color (it always seems to be the men, not the African-American women, who are subject to this kind of treatment). Having grown up in the south, I have seen it, and was even told as a kid that you don't let black people in your house, and that they are to be viewed as suspicious if they are in your neighborhood. I HOPE I've overcome that....I've definitely tried to. After living in the northeast for several years, and then coming back to the south, I DO see black males being treated differently than other people. It is happening. It is a thing, and we need to work to overcome it.
As a white woman, I've been to plenty of Starbucks and other restaurants and fast food places and arrived first to wait for friends. Plenty of times, I've ordered nothing, or only a free glass of water, while I waited, and all I had to do was say I was waiting for people before ordering, and it was all cool. And, I can't even count the number of times I've used a restaurant bathroom while on road trips....almost always without ordering. I just go in, use it, and leave. No one EVER says anything.
So, when I see something like this happening with black men doing the same thing I and my friends do all the time with no issue, I can't help but think the manager who called the police had some inherent, and maybe unknown, bias against black men.
These guys were right....they weren't doing ANYTHING wrong.
And, on a side note, what about all of the protests against the Vietnam war in the 60's and 70's? Do you think that was manufactured outrage, too? I don't. I think those protesters were exercising a Constitutional right, and they had a very valid point in what they were protesting.
Same here. There are lots of places in the country that don't have locks on bathrooms and don't require purchase for use of bathrooms. I grew up in such a place. Most places you stop at in between destinations (aka: "flyover country") are like this, usually because they are small towns that don't generally have problems with people violating bathrooms.
I've also been to plenty of places that require purchase to use bathrooms. In those cases, I purchase something and use the bathroom. I don't do what these guys did: Ask to use the bathroom, get told I needed to buy something to use it, refuse to buy anything and sit back down, then be told by employees that if I don't buy anything I'll be considered as trespassing and the cops will be called, refuse again to leave or buy anything, have cops called and when the cops come and give me three opportunities to leave I refuse them all, then get arrested.
I've never done anything like that. I wouldn't think to do something like that. I'd wager that you have never done anything like that either and wouldn't imagine doing anything like that. Objectively, that has nothing to do with race. They weren't arrested for being black. There's a a whole series of events that explain why the incident happened, and it makes sense.
Considering all of that and the degree to and speed of which the media jumped on this to force a narrative tells me it's manufactured.
I have no idea. That's not something I've looked into. There are many manufactured protests these days, however.