Larry Wilmore had no shortage of material on Monday night in the aftermath of Starbucks cancelling its “Race Together” campaign where baristas were encouraged to chat about race with customers.
“Yeah that’s cause when people heard about it they raced together to Dunkin’ Donuts,” the host of “The Nightly Show” said. “You’re lookin to make progress, Starbucks, how about you stop selling CDs in 2015?”
Still, the host thought that CEO Howard Schultz meant well—but not everyone felt the same way, as Wilmore found when he turned to the feedback on social media.
“I don’t have time to explain 400 years of oppression to you and still make my train,” one Twitter user wrote.
Wilmore thought that was harsh.
“You don’t need to explain the whole story, just explain 2014 — okay, you’re still gonna miss that train,” he said.
He spent the rest of the segment leafing through a cringe-inducing pamphlet Starbucks released in tandem with the “Race Together” initiative.
Watch the clip:
Well, Starbucks COULD have been like PapaJohn, with its Right Wing head Schnatter
Or it could have been like Hobby Lobby
Or it could have been like Koch Enterprises
Or it could have been like WalMart
Or it could have been like Bain Capital
Or it could have been like…
Ever wonder why it is so difficult to have a meaningful discussion about some of the most crucial issues facing America and the world? The thought that anyone could make an organized attempt to deal with the state of race relations in the US ,poorly conceived or otherwise, is met with hate and derision.Good luck ever getting to the crux of this or any issue when a simple acknowledgment there is a problem is an epic fail.We are seeing this play out in DC every day with no end in sight.
That derision (AND the source of it) tells me all I need to know about Mr. Wilmore.
African American and Latino progress came at the hands of those who tried (maybe clumsily) to help ease people’s pain. Not beneficiaries of the efforts of what Mr. Wilmore call very un-cool people.
When people were working with SNCC, during my teen years, there was a lot of “un-coolness” in the house.
edit: Wilbon equals Wilmore