饱受批评 星巴克结束促进种族团结计划

Howard D. Schultz, the chief executive of Starbucks, said in a letter to employees on Sunday that baristas would no longer be encouraged to write the phrase “Race Together” on customers’ coffee cups, drawing to a close a widely derided component of the company’s plan to promote a discussion on racial issues.

星巴克(Starbucks)首席执行官霍华德·D·舒尔茨(Howard D. Schultz)周日在一封致员工信中说道，不再鼓励咖啡师在客人的咖啡杯上写“种族共处”(Race Together)这个口号。于是，该公司旨在就种族议题促进公开讨论，但却广泛受到嘲笑的计划就此结束。

“While there has been criticism of the initiative — and I know this hasn’t been easy for any of you — let me assure you that we didn’t expect universal praise,” Mr. Schultz wrote.

“尽管这个项目受到了批评，我也知道这个举措对你们所有人来说，都不算容易，但我想明确地告诉大家，我们并没有指望会受到普遍的赞誉，”舒尔茨写道。

Having baristas write on customers’ cups, Mr. Schultz wrote, “which was always just the catalyst for a much broader and longer-term conversation — will be completed as originally planned today, March 22.”

让咖啡师在顾客的杯子上写口号的做法，舒尔茨写道，“只是促进更广泛、更长期讨论的催化剂，这种做法将按照最初的计划，于今天即3月22日结束。”

That end date had not previously been mentioned publicly, including during Mr. Schultz’s discussion of the initiative at the company’s annual shareholders meeting last week, but a company spokeswoman, Laurel Harper, said employees had been told about it.

这个截止日期此前从未被公开透露过。舒尔茨上周在公司的年度股东大会上谈到这项行动时，也未提及截止日期。不过星巴克女发言人洛瑞尔·哈珀(Laurel Harper)透露，曾向员工们透露过这个日期。

Asked whether Starbucks was reacting to criticism, Ms. Harper said, “That is not true at all. When we initially began the Race Together initiative, what we wanted to do is spark the conversation, because we believe that is the first step in a complicated issue.”

在被问及星巴克此举是不是为了回应批评时，哈珀说，“完全不是这样。我们最初开始‘种族共处’项目的时候，我们希望做的事情就是激发讨论，因为我们相信这是一个复杂议题中的第一步。”

She added, “Leading change isn’t an easy thing to accomplish.”

她又说，“引领变革并不是容易达成的任务。”

The initiative, which began last week, was mocked with such vehemence on social media that the company’s senior vice president for global communications deleted his Twitter account because, as he wrote on Medium, he felt “personally attacked in a cascade of negativity.”

这项于上周启动的计划，在社交网络上受到了猛烈的嘲讽，以至于该公司负责全球沟通的高级副总裁删除了自己的Twitter账户。他在Medium上写道，原因是他感觉到了“一波又一波负面的人身攻击”。

Some critics said that Starbucks might look first to its own executive team, which they suggested was considerably less diverse than lower-paid staff. Others felt that a coffee company should not foist such discussions on customers.

一些批评人士说，星巴克或许应该先看一下它自己的高管团队。他们提出，该公司高管团队中的多元性，远低于薪水较低的那些员工。其他人则感觉，一家咖啡店不应该把这种讨论强加给顾客。

“I’ll have a flat white,” read one cartoon, referring to an espresso drink the company has recently started serving. “No racism intended.”

“我想要一杯白咖啡(flat white)，”一幅漫画里这样写道。“没有种族歧视的意思。”这是星巴克最近推出的一款浓缩咖啡。

But the broader initiative, Mr. Schultz wrote Sunday, “is far from over.”

然而舒尔茨周日写道，更广泛的行动“还远未结束”。

More open forums are planned, Mr. Schultz wrote, and three special sections in USA Today focusing on racial issues are to appear over the next year, along with “more open dialogue with police and community leaders in cities across our country, a continued focus on jobs and education for our nation’s young people.”

舒尔茨写道，还计划了更多的公开论坛，《今日美国报》(USA Today)上将于明年开辟三个关注种族议题的特别栏目，此外“还会在全国各个城市，在警方和社区领袖之间促进更多的公开对话，并持续关注我国年轻人的就业和教育”。

Starbucks has also committed, he said, to hiring “10,000 opportunity youth over the next three years” and expanding its store footprint in “urban communities.”

他说，星巴克还承诺，“在未来三年里雇佣一万名有前途的年轻人”，并将扩大“城市社区里”店铺的数量。

The criticisms, Ms. Harper said, have not dented Starbucks’ determination. “This is who we are,” she said. “Our mission is to inspire and nurture the human spirit, one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time. We know that we don’t have all the solutions and the answers, but for us, doing nothing makes us part of the problem.”

哈珀表示，这些批评并没有改变星巴克的决心。“我们本质如此，”她说。“我们的使命就是激发和滋养人类精神，每个人、每杯咖啡、每个社区都是进展。我们明白，我们拿不出所有的解决方案和答案，但如果我们什么都不做，就会成为问题的一部分。”