To: Brian Niccol, Chairman and CEO
Tell Starbucks to fight back against racist redistricting!
In 2021, Starbucks joined over 250 other companies to form the Businesses for Voting Rights coalition that sent a letter to Congress emphasizing the harm of voting restrictions, especially to communities of color, and urging Congress to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
In a letter urging Congress to protect voting rights, the coalition wrote: “We recognize that much has changed since passage of the original Voting Rights Act, but the stability of American democracy is as important now as it was back then. Confidence in the integrity of the electoral system is critical to the long-term health of our democracy, and yet majorities of Americans have doubts about our democracy today.”
But instead of living up to that commitment, Starbucks announced it would be spending $100 million to open up a new headquarters in Nashville, TN. The same Tennessee that just brazenly split up a majority Black Democratic district in Memphis in order to solidify a solid Republican Congressional delegation and dilute Black political power.
Despite its mission and values stating the courage to do the right thing, even when it’s hard, Starbucks has chosen to remain quiet in the face of this anti-democratic endeavor. It's time for Starbucks to do the right thing, push back and condemn racist redistricting, and refuse to move forward with their new headquarters until the voting rights of Black voters are restored.
Why is this important?
The Congressional Black Caucus has come out demanding that corporations who signed the Business for Voting Rights letter to Congress back in 2021 take a stand now. In a letter to corporations the CBC highlighted a critical point: “The same corporations that have benefitted from Black consumers, Black talent, and Black communities cannot now retreat into silence while Black political power is openly dismantled in plain sight.”
Despite its supposed commitment to voting rights, Starbucks is staying quiet and moving forward with their plans for a new corporate headquarters in Tennessee—a state whose governor wasted no time signing into a law a new congressional map that will split up the state’s only Black-majority district, stripping Black voters of their ability to influence elections and choose their leader. We need to hold Starbucks accountable and demand they use their corporate influence to condemn the Tennessee legislature's move to dilute Black voices at the ballot box.
We must not allow corporations to fall back on the importance of protecting voting rights. When the voting power of a community is purposefully targeted, that is not a democracy. That is not what John Lewis and so many other civil rights organizers and activists bled and died for.
When corporations stand up and demand change from lawmakers, change happens. It’s time for Starbucks to live up to their promise five years ago and condemn these attacks on our democracy now—in words and in action.