Why you shouldn’t boycott Starbucks…or anything else

Cancel culture. We’re all too familiar with this buzzword, especially in our present culture. We’ve seen cancel culture manifest in a multitude of ways. Professors have been fired, mobs of people boycotted Bud Light and Target, and readers no longer subscribe to J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. 

A new development in cancel culture has been with events relating to the Middle East. Companies and universities have felt this societal pressure to release statements on who and what they support pertaining to the war. We live in an era where saying nothing inflicts harm onto our world. 

Starbucks, of all companies, has been at the center of some of this drama. 

Starbucks Workers United posted on Oct. 9—just two days after the initial attack from Hamas in the Middle East—“Solidarity with Palestine!” on X, formerly known as Twitter. The tweet was up for just under an hour until it was deleted. 

However, this led to other local Workers United branches supporting Palestine and condemning Israel’s violence. As a result of Workers United’s actions, Starbucks has released an official statement condemning hateful violence and Workers United’s use of their logo and likeness to promote Palestine. 

These few actions have spun the situation out of control where those supporting Palestine have called for a boycott of Starbucks. 

Just because Starbucks condemned violence perpetrated by Hamas, thousands are calling out to boycott Starbucks.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a big fan of Starbucks. I think their drinks are overpriced and full of sugar, but do they deserve thousands of customers boycotting their product just because they were forced to make a statement?

Workers United forced Starbucks’ hand by instigating a political litmus test which they inevitably failed. We as consumers just need to keep politics out of what we will and won’t support. 

Taylor Swift and I agree on very little politically or socially; however, I still love her as a musician where I am willing to pay to attend her concerts and stream her music regularly. 

Even though she is an outspoken liberal, I’m not boycotting her products. Instead, I’m pushing politics to the side and enjoying music that I’ve loved since I was nine. 

I am a huge supporter of free expression and speech, thus, I think everyone has a right to boycott anything they want, and for any reason.

But at the same time, it’s hard for me to watch people choose not to get a latte just because the company may or may not agree politically or socially. 

Why has politics infiltrated every corner of our lives? Has tolerance really degraded so much that a cup of coffee has become an ideological litmus test? 

Maybe one of the reasons why we live in this world is because if people don’t publically stand up to something deemed evil, they are a part of the problem.  

We should change this. 

Go out and listen to Taylor Swift, buy a Frappuccino from Starbucks, drink a Bud Light, and separate politics from every choice that you have to make. 

It shouldn’t be this difficult to be a consumer.