Shaq Missed Out On Millions Not Investing In Starbucks Because He Didn't Think Black People Drank Coffee

BSO- Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz approached Shaq about investing in Starbucks for African American community and Shaq’s answer will make you laugh.

“So Howard comes and says, ‘Shaq, I wanna give you the opportunity to go in with me and open up these Starbucks franchises in African American communities,'” Shaq says during his interview with Bensinger. “And I’m always the guy that, if I don’t believe in it, I can’t do it. Will never do it. No amount of money can make me endorse something that I’m not 100 percent behind. So I looked in the great Howard Schultz’s face and said, ‘Black people don’t drink coffee, sir. I don’t think it’s gonna work.’ You should have seen his face. He was like…alright. We’re still good friends today, but that was one of my worst business decisions.”

But wait, there’s more.

“The truth was,” he wrote, “I’d never seen black people drink coffee. I thought it was a white person’s drink.”



You see, I'm not so sure I believe this. Oh no, I totally believe that Shaq didn't know that black people drank coffee. Coming from Shaq that actually makes perfect sense. I'm just not sure I believe that he lost out on millions of dollars by failing to realize such. Someone's going to have to give me a look at the books before I believe that a couple Starbucks in underprivileged areas are worth that much money. That's not to say that black people don't drink coffee. That's not even to say that black people don't drink Starbucks. I'm not like Shaq in assuming the entirety of 'his people' were dependent on the sugar rush from grape soda to give them a much needed kick in the ass every morning. However, I also didn't think that a bunch of people that were working paycheck to paycheck were spending their excess income on marked up dirt water. The closest "African American community" that I have to me is Compton, and you don't need to see a biopic about N.W.A. to realize it's not the safest of areas. Now, I don't venture there very often, but if I did I certainly wouldn't expect to spend a half hour in line at Starbucks. In fact, the only possible reason I could imagine that Starbucks is that popular in dangerous neighborhoods is because everyone that's from out of town takes shelter there. A Starbucks in the middle of the hood is basically Compton's Caucasian Embassy. 

Like I said, I know black people drink coffee, but I live in a very diverse neighborhood, and could probably count, on my hands, the amount of times I have seen a black person in Starbucks. The only consistently black thing in my local Starbucks is my iced coffee. That's not racist because it's a fact. I know from experience. Black people drink coffee, but according to my calculations they don't hang out in bougie cafes that charge 3x the retail price for a cappuccino. I actually would go as far as saying that coffee is a white person's drink. Not because black people don't drink it, but because white people flaunt the fact that they drink it like it's some sort of status symbol. It's the same thing as saying that Jordan's are a black person's shoe. Sure, white people wear Jordan's too, but black people WEAR Jordan's. Just like black people show off their overpriced footwear, white people show off their overpriced morning beverage. Long story short, I guess Shaq probably should have invested in the most popular international coffee chain in the world and added a zero or two to his bank account. However, I, for one, don't fault his completely uneducated decision not to, because black people do a hell of a job of being subtle in their caffeine consumption. Whatever, making money off products you don't readily endorse is for the birds. Isn't that why we are skeptical of every old, white Jew running a hip hop record label?