Is coffee racist? How drinking coffee perpetuates white supremacy

AFRU ^ | August 27,2023 | AFRU Staff

[packagingguy]

If you’re a person of color, you know what I’m talking about. You walk into a new coffee shop and your senses are overwhelmed with whiteness and you get the glare from the Karens. The white hipster barista lines herself up between you and the bathrooms, ready to tell you non-customers aren’t welcome...

Well, I’m here to validate your lived experience; coffee is in fact horribly racist, and there’s data to back it up.

Every facet of the coffee industry, in fact, is rooted in racism. From the moment the whites viciously stole coffee from Black and Brown People to the present-day Karen sipping her morning cup of white supremacy, whites have been able to drink the fruits of our labor and our culture with impunity...

Unfortunately, coffee is not the only racist drink on the market. Milk also became racist after white supremacists began using the white drink as a symbol of their skin. Yes, racist roots in the coffee industry are certainly much deeper, but the whiteness of milk and milk’s devastating effects on the beautiful Black body makes it almost as bad as coffee for some Black people.

So, if both milk and coffee are racist, what can be done? Many people will insist that combining the two drinks actually cancels out the racism, because it represents the white becoming pregnant with Blackness, and creating a delicious Brown result. This is why antiracist folks often take milk in their coffee — a subconscious purifying ritual.

But ultimately, and I know this will hurt, a proper commitment to doing antiracist direct action requires that we give up coffee altogether. Unless you’re Ethiopian.

[packagingguy]

I know this is a late post.

But I wanted all to know when you wake up in the morning and wish for that coffee and milk to start the morning that you are a waysis,

There is no way around this.

I know you will wake up to drink coffee and cream, which makes you a double waysis, then go on to consume bacon and eggs in your right-wing plot to destroy the planet.

Maybe if you drank warm water, ate meal worms and drank cockroach milk you could atone for your evil conservative ways. I'm not holding my breath.

There must be a "final solution" to your intransigence.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Are 40 oz malt liquor beverages racist?
Newport cigarettes?

[Nervous Tick]

Is this parody?
Whether or not... i’m LOL!

[crusty old prospector]

It is a nasty, vile drink. Throw in two pounds of sugar and cream and it is digestible. /a.

[crusty old prospector]

/s

[Steely Tom]

Here's this organization's "About" page. Contains a lot of trendy word salad.

About AFRU We believe in the power of fashion to spark meaningful conversations on justice — as well as the other way around.

Shalawam.

AFRU is a Black-led and majority Black-owned startup that combines fashion and streetwear with lifestyle commentary to create a strong social justice brand that is relevant and attractive to folks from all walks of life.

We believe in the power of fashion to spark meaningful conversations — as well as the other way around. We also realize that people don’t want to be preached to all the time. That’s why our imprint magazine stitches together light everyday topics with navigation of more difficult intersectional spaces — all while allowing for the kind of messiness that is part of human nature. Our visual and intellectual branding therefore nurture each other in an perpetual spiral of trendsetting justice.

In addition to our activism and fashion work, we also seek to work with companies that align with our ambition to help younger global audiences navigate what it means to be part of transformational change.

We unapologetically celebrate folks from all backgrounds

We celebrate all the people, big and small,
With open hearts and open arms, we stand tall.
Gay people and straight people, queer people and everyone in-between,
All walks of life, all genders, and all scenes.

Transgender and cisgender, gender non-conforming too,
Everyone is welcomed, their journey we’ll see through.
And the sex workers, drag queens, and those in the scene,
Their stories we’ll lift up, let their voices be seen.

Disabled folks, the elderly, the young and the bold,
All deserve love, respect and protection, never to be told.
Intersex, asexual, pansexual and more,
We stand with you, and we’ll fight for your roar.

Black, white, brown, yellow, and all shades in-between,
Racism has no place here, our love is supreme.
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All religions are honored, peace we implore.

Poor, rich, middle-class, no matter the wealth,
Equality is our goal, justice our wealth.
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We’ll stand with you, never leave you alone.

So let us come together, and raise our voices high,
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We celebrate all identities, in unity we’ll stand,
For a better world, for all, hand in hand.
We are people. Not a corporation.

We are people. Not a corporation.

Join us on our journey towards a better future. Let’s use fashion as a tool for change, and let’s have the courage to make a statement with every step we take. With every purchase from AFRU, you are not only making a bold fashion statement: you are investing in a people-community that is most effectively working towards a more just and equitable future for all.

[DoodleBob]

[Chode]

don’t care man...

[PeterPrinciple]

I’m a black liberal, and this is the most idiotic reach I’ve ever seen attempted. Delete this article and stay out of black folks business. You’re not helping.

---

from the comments at the article.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I like my coffee black. So I suppose that’s some sort of metaphor for this white person drinking up poor, helpless black folk. Very racist of me.

[Williams]

Is this racist filth really not a parody?

[Flatus I. Maximus]

This ... isn’t a parody? This pinhead is serious?

OMFG.

[peggybac]

A sloppy and sophomoric article. It reads like a high school class paper.

[Bounced2X]

Could go a long way to fix this by putting these people behind the counter at Starbucks.

From the article.

[jerod]

The next thing you know... They’ll be seeking reparations from Captain Morgan, Appleton Estate, Bacardi’s and god forbid... Plantation 3 Stars white rum.

[Noumenon]

I’m going to peg that white supremacy meter every morning with a quad shot Lavazza or Illy espresso. No milk, though. Coffee that good doesn’t need buffering. So take THAT, Mr. Oogabooga.

[Impala64ssa]

Convince these fools that oxygen is a systemically racist construct. Instead of WE CAN'T BREATHE they'll take to the streets chanting WE WON'T BREATHE and let natural selection take over.

[DoughtyOne]

I’m going to have some now, to celebrate.

[frank ballenger]

Coffee....I happened to hear one black woman talking to another near me in a restaurant when about 1965 or so. After “think of the children” one said to the other “No matter how much cream is in the coffee, it’s still coffee.”

They were agreeing a young black woman they knew or were related to shouldn’t marry a certain black man who was darker, but a light skinned man was like more cream in coffee. An education to me.

[gundog]

That’s jus’ ig’nant.