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Over the past few weeks, amid a historic, global Black civil rights movement, publicly-shared personal experiences of systemic racism have opened an industry-wide conversation about structural inequity in specialty coffee. As current and former employees of various companies have come forward to share painful experiences, calls for meaningful and actionable apologies have intensified alongside calls to build a more equitable specialty coffee industry for Black coffee professionals. Phyllis Johnson, founder and president of BD Imports, published an open letter to US coffee professionals, calling for industry leaders to come together to provide resources, tools, and funding to fight systemic racism in the specialty coffee industry. “Our credibility is at stake,” writes Phyllis, “when asking coffee producers to create greater social and equitable programs when we in the US are silent on blatant injustices at home.” 

But this is not just an American problem: There is a direct relationship between the current civil rights movement and the structural inequity of today’s coffee industry. Today’s models of coffee production and consumption were shaped by government-backed merchants like the British and Dutch East India Companies in the mid-1600s. As the consumption of coffee became more popular in Europe, other colonial powers, particularly France, followed suit. In all cases, forced labor or slavery was critical to the success of this export-driven production model. This particular market structure—where the Global North exerts power over the trade of coffee that is produced in the Global South by artificially low-cost labor—is still reflected in today’s market. 

As the specialty coffee industry continues to reflect on systemic racism, inequality, and discrimination, social media feeds have filled with resources for those who wish to support the Black Lives Matter movement, including lists of Black-owned coffee businesses across the value chain. 

Coffee communities in Africa are facing unprecedented hardship as they attempt to manage the effects of torrential rain and swarms of locusts amid the ongoing global pandemic. Countries across East Africa, particularly Rwanda, Kenya, and Uganda, have been especially affected by the heaviest rains in months. Critical infrastructure, including bridges and schools, as well as farms and homes have been swept away by landslides. At least 70 people have lost their lives in Rwanda, neighboring Kenya has reported nearly 200 lives lost in the past month, and thousands have been displaced in Uganda after two rivers burst their banks. While it’s impossible to ascertain the full scope of the damage to the East African coffee sector, relief efforts are mounting. Raw Materials, a nonprofit coffee trading company, has reported at least 28 members of coffee-growing communities in the Nyabihu District of Northern Rwanda lost their lives in early May flooding. Raw Materials has joined efforts with Muraho Trading Company, an owner/operator of mills in North Rwanda, to fundraise for a three-phase relief effort for the affected communities. 

This episode of Recap was made possible with the support of DaVinci. If you want to dive deeper into anything you heard today, check out the links in the description of this episode. Recap will be back in two weeks’ time. Thanks for listening. 

Further Reading:

• A global Black civil rights movement has spurred an industry-wide conversation about the structural inequity of specialty coffee
  • An Open Letter to the US Coffee Industry on Racism (Phyllis Johnson, BD Imports)
  • This Week’s Webinar: Race and Specialty Coffee (Royal Coffee)
  • Coffee Businesses Respond in Solidarity Amidst US Protests (Daily Coffee News)
  • #BlackLivesMatter Initiatives Coffee Businesses Can Support (Barista Magazine)
  • Support These Black-Owned Coffee Companies (Sprudge)
  • Support Black Lives Matter (Fresh Cup)
  • Coffee & Colonialism: A Reading Club with the US Chapter of the SCA (SCA USA)
  • The Making of a Global Commodity | Part 1: Out of Arabia (Dr. Steven Topik, SCA News)
  • The Price Crisis Response Summary of Work 
• Coffee communities in Africa face unprecedented hardship as they manage the effects of torrential rain, swarms of locusts, and the ongoing global pandemic
  • A Triple Thread Imperils Millions of People Across Africa (Wired)
  • Rwanda: Dozens killed as heavy rains trigger floods, landslides (Al Jazeera)
  • Eastern Africa Region: Floods and Locust Outbreak Snapshot (May 2020) (Relief Web)
  • Relief Effort Underway for Rwanda Coffee Communities Ravaged by Floods (Daily Coffee News)
  • Rwanda Landslides Urgent Appeal (Raw Materials)