This morning I watched Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson appear on TV looking as if they were on the brink of tears, talking about the soul-crushing ordeal of getting arrested while simply sitting in a Philadelphia Starbucks.
No love for these two brothers in the City of Brotherly Love.
Now I’m a Philly girl and grew up right on those same rough streets where my two cousins were shot and killed, and every day saw police terrorize my neighborhood. It’s frightening and no respectable Black man wants to come face to face with the 5-0 because we all know how that could end up.
When Philly cops strolled into the coffee house they immediately injected fear and intimidation into the two young entrepreneurs. They didn’t read them their Miranda rights. They didn’t ask them if there was an underlying issue. They didn’t find out their side of the story. They simple slapped handcuffs on them and hauled them off to jail. The crime: sitting in Starbucks while Black.
Something Black folks in Philadelphia know all too well.
—Money, Power, Disrespect: After Starbucks arrest, lawyers discuss monetary amount men can expect—
Does it say somewhere in state law or the Starbucks handbook that Blacks are not allowed to sit and stew in Starbucks without sipping brew? Anybody see that? Send it to me please. Go to Starbucks on any given day and you’ll see a whole lot of white folks sitting unbothered sipping frothy Caramel Macchiatos.
People have a right to equal and fair treatment. Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson were pulled out of Starbucks by a gang of cops without any investigation into the situation.
Now we’ve all seen the videos of police confrontations that have gone horribly wrong, and this incident could have been no different.
Remember, Eric Garner was literally choked to death and killed on camera by police after being suspecting of selling loose cigarettes. We all know death can happen when cops hit the scene and people want to know why we’re so outraged. This whole situation could have gone left.
Nelson, who has never been arrested before, told the Associated Press that he wondered if he’d make it home alive.
“Anytime I’m encountered by cops, I can honestly say it’s a thought that runs through my mind,” Nelson said. “You never know what’s going to happen.”
Rashon Nelson, who says he’s been best friends with Donte Robinson since the fourth grade, is really a good young man who is not about that life. My brother Pedro actually went to Bartram High School with Nelson and they had a few classes together. He said Nelson was really a “nice guy” who always did his work and made good grades. He even sent me a bunch of yearbook pictures that shows Nelson was an active student who enjoyed education. He wasn’t a thug. He wasn’t trying to shoot up the Starbucks. He was simply trying to secure the bag by meeting with a friend to explore a real estate deal they had been working on for months.
—After Starbucks arrest, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson speak out: “We want to see true change”—
Starbucks now wants to implement diversity training for its employees but how will that help the two young men whose worlds have been disrupted, who have been mentally damaged and who are hurting inside and suffering when they simply tried to do the right thing.
It’s come to light by a former employee that Holly Hylton, the manager who made the 911 call often targeted black customers because she felt uncomfortable dealing with them. Starbucks employee Ieshaa Cash flat out called Hylton a racist who often targeted Black customers and I co-sign. How do you call the police within two minutes of Nelson and Robinson talking a seat? Did their blackness offend her that much?
That’s typically in a section of the city that the Washington Post says 67% of the people arrested in the neighborhood are but how does that happen when only 3% the population in that neighborhood is Black?
Racism, that’s how. From the house negro Police Commissioner Richard Ross Jr., who was quick to defend the actions of the police officers as justified, to the racist Starbucks manager we have a problem across the board.
None of this sits well with a woman who was born and raised in Philly. And now that we’ve heard the Nelson and Robinson tell their side of the events I think Starbucks should do more.
Nelson and Robinson need their own Starbucks franchise and here’s a few reasons why:
Managers that cater to us: A former employee said that the manager Holly Hylton who called the cops on Nelson and Robinson is a racist who would make Black folks wait to be served. We need Nelson and Robinson to open a franchise that would have one line that says “Black Girl Magic” and another that read: “Black Boy Brilliance.” If you didn’t happen to fall in those categories, you would just have to wait until those folks got served first. Just saying. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Right Starbucks?
Nelson and Robinson could open a Starbucks where cops would NOT be welcomed. Yes, it could happen. There’s already an Oakland coffee shop that does NOT serve cops in an effort to keep the peace because “police presence compromises our feeling of physical & emotional safety,” the coffee shop said. We agree! The cops rolled up in Starbucks and thought they had the right to NOT even read Nelson and Robinson their Miranda rights. It was a clear-cut violation of their liberties so cops gotta’ go and can’t have a cup of Joe!
In any event there’s major work that needs to be done to resolve this issue. I hope Nelson and Robinson come to terms with this incident in a way that brings closure, money, power, respect and a Starbucks franchise of their own!