No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Starbucks Pledges to Employ 10,000 Refugees Worldwide, Trump Supporters Call for Boycott

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by Amna El Tawil
While we should help everyone in need, it seems like good deeds can’t go unpunished and, nowadays, trying to do something nice for others, give them hope, is a subject of harsh criticism. The best example is Starbucks.
 
The coffee giant made major news when outgoing CEO Howard Schultz pledged that the company would look to hire 10,000 refugees in its stores worldwide, including some who have helped the U.S. military, in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order to bar entry of refugees from several predominantly Muslim countries. The statement from Schultz—who also sought to reassure his employees after Trump’s immigration ban—was one of many public statements made by high-profile CEOs. The tech industry has been especially vocal and executives from other industries are just now starting to weigh in.
 
Unfortunately, Starbucks found itself in a tweetstorm that could have been seen from a mile away. #BoycottStarbucks was the highest trending topic on Twitter. As usually with these divisive topics, a group of Twitter users are pledging to stop supporting Starbucks, while those supportive of the refugee hiring news say they will buy coffee and food from the restaurant chain to support the move.
 
What’s ironic in all this is that Starbucks pledged to employ refugees WORLDWIDE, not in the US primarily. Even more shocking is the fact that humanity is significantly regressing nowadays when people refuse to help refugees. It makes you wonder who you’d feel when you leave a war-torn country to save your life and everyone else refuses to help.

 
As mentioned already, people called for boycott


At the same time, others applauded Starbucks’ pledge