I’m sure you’ve all heard about the controversial issue some “Christians” have with Starbucks’ new holiday cups. They’re proclaiming that the company is starting a war on Christmas by being PC and just having a solid red cup. It’s been said that Starbucks is trying to take the ‘Christ’ out of Christmas by not including traditional Christmas symbolism on their holiday cups. I find that absolutely crazy. No one is starting a ‘war on Christmas’. Besides, the symbolism that they’re referring to isn’t even associated with Christianity! Take a look at the cups from the past 3 years.
The symbolism they’re referring to has nothing to do with Christianity! All I see are snowmen, snowflakes, ornaments and red stripes. Since when are those religious symbols? Christian symbols? I’ll wait.
People are seriously posting videos and pictures on Facebook and Youtube showing themselves going in to Starbucks and giving the name “Merry Christmas” just so baristas can write it on the cups as a form of boycotting. These people obviously don’t know the definition of boycotting. They should pick up a history book or do a quick Google search of the ‘Montgomery Boycott Movement’ if they a good example. Then there are the other extremes, the people who have never stepped foot in a Starbucks and are tweeting and posting messages like “You’ve never gotten my business and thanks to this you will never get it”. Umm…how can you boycott something you’ve never paid for/used?
Well I’m going to help those people out; they want to speak against something and rally behind stuff? Here are three things that really need your attention.
The Mizzou Issue – If you haven’t heard anything about this you’ve been living under a rock…or on a cloud of privilege. I want to say that it started back in September when the student body president was called a racial slur, but this has been going on long before that. (I haven’t really blogged about being a black student at a PWI, but I have a post coming out about that soon). The next month members of the school’s ‘Legion of Black Collegians’ (essentially their Black student association) were called racial slurs while walking on campus and the school’s chancellor made everyone take diversity training. Well that obviously didn’t help matters because after a group of students who collectively named themselves ‘Concerned Student 1950’ (the year Mizzou admitted their first Black student) staged a protest since the school’s president wasn’t doing enough to rectify the situation, a swastika made of fecal matter was drawn in a dorm bathroom. By then the student body had had enough and that led to a hunger strike, a football strike to back up that hunger strike and president Wolfe finally resigned. What’s sad is that it took the school losing a million dollars a week before something was really done. It seems to me like the administration wasn’t really concerned with the emotional and possible physical abuse (especially after the death threats were made against black students online and members of the KKK showing up on campus this week) that their students were enduring, they were more concerned with the money. The so-called Christians can rally together and boycott Mizzou sporting events instead of Starbucks.
Homelessness – This has been an issue for a while and in light of Veterans Day being yesterday and the large number of this nation’s homeless population being veterans I think this is something these so-called Christians need to rally behind. God wants us to be our brothers’ keeper and to take care of the less-fortunate. Let’s do it!
Getting rid of the “friendzone” -This is one of the most disrespectful terms I’ve heard and it’s picked up a lot of steam recently. For some reason guys are complaining about being “friendzoned” by a girl, as if all they were entitled to sexual benefits just for being a decent human being. As if women are some type of sexual dispensing machines and all a guy has to do is deposit a few compliments and nice gestures to sleep with her. As if women don’t get to make decisions about their own bodies and we’re only on this earth to bear children, maintain households and satisfy our partners sexually. Uh no! I have a feeling that the real reason behind the phrase “men and women can’t just be friends” is due to this ‘friendzone’ way of thinking. It’s completely false and my relationship with my best friend/play big brother Marc can prove that. I don’t owe a man (or any other person) anything; not a smile, laugh, hug and definitely not sex. We as a society have to get rid of the term ‘friendzone’.
Those are just a few things that are far more important (in my opinion at least) than Starbucks’ ‘War on Christmas’. Have y’all heard about that foolishness, and if so what do you think? Comment below and let me know!
The thing that REALLY has me irked about this whole "issue" is how much of a non-issue it really is. Yes, there absolutely are some people complaining about the stupid cups. But most people couldn't care less about them. It's been blown WAY out of proportion and it's been given WAY too much attention and now people think more people are mad about it than actually are mad about it. It's like when there are a few shark attacks in the summer and the media starts proclaiming it the Summer of the Shark! and everyone panics. And then you find out that there are actually FEWER shark attacks that year than in previous years.
Basically, every just needs to calm the hell down and worry about themselves. And ACTUAL world issues, like you said.