The Right To Loiter

Congratulations to African-Americans on gaining the "right" to loiter at coffee shops and to use business bathrooms without buying anything.  Starbucks actually closed their shops across the country yesterday afternoon (not during their prime morning sales windows) to "teach" their employees "racial sensitivity".  This follows the highly-publicized incident in Philadelphia where two black men waiting to meet someone at Starbucks tried to use the restrooms but were told to leave--and then were arrested by police when they refused.

In their defense, the Philadelphia men were trying to do the same thing Starbucks' hard-core white, Millenial customer base does all the time: to use what is a restaurant as a living room or business office--without putting any money in the till.  Personally, if I was running Starbucks, rather than telling my employees "Let the minority people stay without buying anything" I would have ordered all non-customers to get out--regardless of race, creed and financial status.  The purpose of a coffee shop is to sell coffee--not to be a "hangout spot" with free wi-fi.

The Starbucks "right to loiter" continues a pattern of societal changes that proponents claim are "improving" the lives of minorities and the poor.  Those would also include decriminalization of marijuana use and low-level sales of weed, no longer citing people for public urination, not rounding up the homeless and getting them off the streets, heroin needle-exchange programs and "sanctuary city" status.  Such moves do not improve the lives of those who are now "free" to do things that used to be illegal--nor do they improve the quality of life for everyone else in society.  But they make a certain segment of the population feel better about themselves--and I guess that is all that counts nowadays.

In the meantime, if I'm on the road and need to answer an urgent "call of nature" at a gas station or a restaurant, I'll continue to buy a small item like a soda or a snack--even if they don't have a sign that the "bathrooms are for customers only"--because I still feel like I owe them something for the use of their facilities.  And I wouldn't want to be accused of exerting my "white privilege".