Consider this a dark horse for Trump’s upcoming Fake News Awards: An eye-rolling falsehood posted to a race-baiting Facebook group, 4chan, and other places has gone viral after falsely accusing a Georgia Starbucks of doing vile things specifically to white customers’ orders. The post — an early version of which appeared in a private, 50,000-member group called “White People Vs Black People (The Original)” — said a black barista named Shanell Rivers had, among other things, spit in a woman’s macchiato, mixed a “dab of blood” into strawberry jam for a man’s bagel, and put dog poo into a little girl’s hot chocolate.
In an effort not to give it more views, here’s a block quote of what “Rivers” allegedly bragged about doing:
When you work at Starbucks in Atlanta and did the following this week.
1. Spit in this old ass white ladies machiato.
2. Mixed a dab of blood in the strawberry jam of a white man’s bagel. {simple thumb prick}
3. White bitch said her table needs cleaning.. I rushed to her table using the bathroom rag lol.
4. Obnoxious pink faced 4-year-old gets hor chocolate with finely grounded dry pit bull shit. Her stupid ass mom yells “oh look dear!. Marshmallow sprinkles”! 😂. I almost fell out.
5. Pocketed a extra 94 dollars just today.. Overcharging these “no thank you no receipt needed ass fools”
6. Father and son order gourmet sandwiches. I lick both sides of the bread prior to making.
Starbucks did its best to shut the fabrication down, telling people on social media that the claim was “completely false,” and that, in fact, there’s not even a Starbucks employee named Shanell Rivers. The post was reported as an actual scandal anyway by conservative blogs and Reddit groups, complete with a made-up pic of this “Rivers” person.
Unsurprisingly, this led to threatening phone calls, like in #Pizzagate. Starbucks hasn’t commented on their exact nature, but the Washington Post says the café closed on Sunday out of concern for workers’ safety. A rep adds that the store called police, who say they’re now investigating “the true identity of the person or persons responsible” to “better understand their motives.” Not to spoil it for them or anything, but it just might be racism.
