How Coffee Roasters Can Contribute to the Anti-Racism Movement

By O.M. MILES, Chair of the Coffee Roasters Guild’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee 

Hello CRG Members,

My name is Miles, I’m a Business Development Manager at IKAWA, a former AST and roasting educator, and a black coffee professional.

Moving through life as a member of the minority, the layers of my identity are always front of mind. Even the same when participating in coffee: I’m a woman who roasts coffee in a male-dominated sector, as well as a Black person working in a white-dominated industry. 

Before the globally- and publicly-viewed, gruesome killing of George Floyd I never was given space to share with colleagues what these intersections mean, why they matter, or why even not discussing them holds us back as a community.  I’ve shared so much now, more than ever, and have been met with so many conversations showing growth from my colleagues (and also a few showing willful ignorance and a commitment to upholding white supremacy, unfortunately).

As a volunteer of a committee created by the CRG at the turn of a white supremacist incident at one of our community events, I bear the weight of bringing awareness to the topics above and finding ways to organize our roasting community and the structure of our CRG to protect the folks in our sector in the margins.

Much of what this looks like is unseen work: committee calls, sharing, long-term planning, our own democratic process, cross-functional projects, internal selling, rebuttals and education, carried out as volunteers on top of our full-time jobs.  I’m happy to be sharing it here, as it’s a very overdue introduction. 

Moving forward, I’m happy to share more on what we’re working on as a committee and, of course, receive feedback from the community (this is actually one of our committee’s tasks for this year!).

Thanks for reading and staying involved!

- O.M. Miles 

(just call me Miles)

Here are a few ideas on how you can contribute to the anti-racist movement…

#1 Donate:

• Self-explanatory.  

• One example: Counter Coffee Air Roasters.

• Larger brands in coffee such as Blue Bottle, Verve Coffee, Stumptown, and also countless smaller roasteries have donated already.

• Many organizations that folks are donating to include:

  • ACLU

  • Black Lives Matter

  • Black Visions Collective

  • Color of Change

  • Campaign Zero

  • Know Your Rights Camp

  • NAACP Legal Defense Fund

  • National Bail Fund Network

  • Reclaim the Block

  • The African American Policy Forum

• In addition to or in lieu of the list above, don't forget to go local and donate to organizations in your community that are lesser-known, thus receive fewer donations.

#2 ... if you can't afford to donate, crowdfund or raise money:

• Support These Black-Owned Coffee Fundraisers [Updating] (Sprudge)

• Example: Bakers Against Racism (Eater)

• Example: Auctions, Raffles, and Other Ways Independent Fashion Brands Are Supporting the Black Lives Matter Movement (Vogue)

• Some companies also fundraise by offering to match their community's donations via an online system or in-person donation jar.

#3 Protest:

• Use the weight and reputation of your brand to protest police brutality and racism in solidarity.  Global examples I've seen of this include:

• Pope Francis Sends Strong Message to U.S. Catholics After George Floyd's Death (TIME)

• 'Speaking up on Racism' by Apple's CEO, Tim Cook (Apple)

• BTS (best-selling act in South Korean history) and its 'Army' donates more than $2 million to Black Lives Matter(multiple sources)

• Make sure you do more than this simple step of 'brand activism' and look to actionable steps below.

• ... DISCLAIMER: the organizations used in the above examples are imperfect, as they are reckoning with other systemic issues of their own.  I used them as examples in order to highlight that globally-known public images or icons can use their brand power to speak out about the specific human rights injustices BLM addresses.

#4 Petition:

• Past examples of corporate petitions include:

  • COVID petitions from restaurants (Food & Wine Magazine)

  • COVID petitions from global Disney workers (CNN)

  • Music industry petitions to end exploitation of artists during COVID outbreak (The Action Network)

  • Petition for the UK government to aid music industry (The Independent)

  • Petition in support of workplace equality for mothers in the film industry (Forbes)

#5 Vote:

• Why Companies Should Encourage Employees to Vote (Wharton School of Business)

• Paid Holiday on Election Day

• Discounted or Free Lyft ride to polling stations

• Use marketing efforts to educate staff on the importance of voting

• Educate yourself & staff about voter suppression and voter laws

• Get Out the Vote: Ways to Motivate Employees to Make it to the Polls (JustWorks)

• Example of how Patagonia, an outdoor clothing company, is a corporate leader in this area: Don’t Sit This One Out … We Aren’t

#6 Educate yourself and your staff:

• USE GOOGLE.

• Look to and hire professionals!

• The onus is on white allies to educate themselves, not Black or POC colleagues.

• Another simple step is to follow hashtags on social media including #BlackLivesMatter, #BLM, #SupportBlackBusiness, #SupportBlackArt, #ShareBlackStories

• Use this link: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/#educate and read the Diversity & Inclusion Leadership portion on Forbes.com

• ... education & allyship is ongoing and long-term, not a checklist.

#7 Look closely and adjust your organizational structure:

• Five Ways to Be Anti-Racist at Your Café (Barista Magazine)

• Dear Companies: Your BLM Posts Are Cute But We Want To See Policy Change (by Janice Gassam @ Forbes)

  • Talk about race

  • Monthly inclusion events

  • Address systemic issues

  • Limit referral hiring

  • Provide sponsorship opportunities

• Consider making Juneteenth a corporate holiday at your organization (Forbes)

• Women of Color Get Less Support at Work. Here’s How Managers Can Change That (Harvard Business Review)

• An example of a campaign in the beauty industry calling for changes in beauty brands' organizational structures: #PullUporShutUp Campaign (Vox)

#8 Amplify, support, and patron Black-owned businesses:

• Support These Black-Owned Coffee Companies [Updating] (Sprudge)

• EXAMPLE: #SharetheMicNow Campaign (Instagram Campaign)

#9 Highlight Black coffee professionals:

• Black Coffee on Your Feed (Barista Magazine)

• EXAMPLE: Black Lives Matter | Netflix Official Site (Netflix Campaign)

• Companies can do this on a local level and even highlight local black professionals adjacent to the coffee industry.

#10 Keep listening and learning:

• Restaurants Must Use This Moment to Change, Too (Eater)

• Put feedback structures in place for black coffee professionals at your business

• Host frequent and consistent educational sessions with your team

• Incentivize learning within your organization