Just a few days after 8,000 Starbucks' closed for an afternoon of racial bias training, the corporation released the eight-minute video shown to employees during training. Independently created by filmmaker Stanley Nelson, the powerful short film showcases the long-time struggle for equality in public spaces.
The film opens with a word from Nelson himself, and goes on to show interviews of mostly young people of color describing their experience in restaurants, malls, and other public arenas. Their feelings are truly heartbreaking: "People assume you're doing something bad," and "I feel like I'm disturbing people or making them uncomfortable just walking in." As one person put it, "It's not like I can mute my actual blackness, so everything has to be as perfect and clean and as blended in as possible."
Throughout the film there are clips from the Civil Rights Movement onward, with more recent cell phone videos showing incidents like an officer choking a young black man outside Waffle House after prom. Per Starbucks, "The film explores the impact of bias within public accommodations as well as the possibilities for a better future."
The video ends with three powerful questions:
- What can you do to make our schools, parks, stores, and restaurants as welcoming and inclusive as they can be?
- What kind of country do we want to live in?
- Who do we want to be?
You can watch the video in full above.
Follow Delish on Instagram.
