#  Sitting In Starbucks While Black

     Details    Abby Zimet   ![logo](https://www.citywatchla.com//templates/ja_teline_v/images/logo.png)         April 16 2018      [  ![](https://www.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Apr-2018/031f.png)    ](https://www.citywatchla.com/los-angeles/15279-sitting-in-starbucks-while-black)

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> GUEST COMMENTARY--In this once-reasonably-fair democracy in the year of our ostensible Lord 2018, two African-American guys[sitting peaceably](https://twitter.com/missydepino/status/984539713016094721)in a Philadelphia Starbucks waiting for a friend to show up for a meeting were charged with "trespassing" by Starbucks staff, asked "politely" three times to leave, and then[arrested ](http://www.philly.com/philly/news/starbucks-philadelphia-police-viral-video-investigation-race-20180414.html)by a swarm of six cops when they declined to do so.

 ![](https://www.citywatchla.com/images/stories/Apr-2018/031e.png)The shop's manager reportedly called police after the men asked to use the bathroom but didn't buy anything while they waited - a practice evidently common enough among Starbucks users that most of the almost four million outraged people who've now viewed [video ](https://twitter.com/missydepino)of the scene [noted ](https://twitter.com/hashtag/waitingwhileblack?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.essence.com%2Fnews%2Ftwo-black-men-arrested-starbucks)that huh, actually, they do that all the time. (Many are white.)

Their disbelief was matched by Andrew Yaffe, the (white) real estate developer they were waiting for, when he [arrived](https://www.commondreams.org/further/2018/04/14/%20https:/twitter.com/hashtag/waitingwhileblack?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.essence.com%2Fnews%2Ftwo-black-men-arrested-starbucks)to see his two friends carted off - preternaturally calm - in handcuffs.

"What did they DO?" he demands, before asking other patrons another excellent question. "Does anybody else think this is ridiculous?”[Yup, ](https://twitter.com/deray/status/984904038025056256)they say. Police nonetheless arrested, fingerprinted and photographed the men; they considered charging them with "defiant trespass” - second cousin to uppity - but let them go hours later “because of lack of evidence” a [crime ](https://www.essence.com/news/two-black-men-arrested-starbucks)was committed, at least by them.

The ugly spectacle [drew ](http://www.philly.com/philly/news/starbucks-philadelphia-police-viral-video-investigation-race-20180414.html)a lame apology from Starbucks - "We are disappointed this led to an arrest” - and a statement from Philadelphia's police commissioner that officers "did absolutely nothing wrong," though they're also conducting an investigation.

Meanwhile, many on social media urged a Starbucks [boycott](https://shoppeblack.us/2018/04/black-owned-coffee-tea-starbucks-alternatives/)- we already do - and [lamented ](https://twitter.com/deray/status/984904038025056256)the state of the union. "This is tired," said one. And: "America, America, this is you."

*(Guest columnist Abby Zimet offers her insight daily at the popular* [Common Dreams](http://commondreams.org/)*… where this perspective was first posted.)*

*-cw*

  - [  Previous Article **This is a Perfect Time for the Elysium’s Richard III … Today’s Climate of Public Lying** ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15281:this-is-a-perfect-time-for-the-elysium-s-richard-iii-today-s-climate-of-public-lying&catid=312)
- [  Next Article **Senator Wiener’s SB 827 Amendments Stir Up a Hornet’s Nest** ](https://www.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15278:senator-wiener-s-sb-827-amendments-stir-up-a-hornet-s-nest&catid=312)
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