Starbucks Customers Using Black Lives Matter As A Name

Protests can take many, many forms: marches, petitions, sit-ins — even the name you provide a Starbucks barista can be used as protest.

Recently, Starbucks customers have been making orders and changing their names to #BlackLivesMatter, so that when the baristas call them they have to yell their new moniker.

According toThe Huffington Post the person that started this off was Lex Cross. Cross posted his Starbucks receipt and a screenshot of the app displaying his new name last Thursday on Facebook. Since then, the post has been shared over 47,000 times. "Changed the name on my Starbucks app to ‪#‎blacklivesmatter‬ so the barista has to shout it to a room full of people when they put my order on the bar," Cross typed in the post.

In the past few days more and more people have been doing the same, with customers and employees alike documenting the moments on social media. Some have jokingly said that they're going to start doing the same at other restaurants that ask for a name whenever an order is made. However, there have been some moments in which baristas have refused to serve people who've been using the moniker.

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The creative strategy comes at a time when the Black Lives Matter movement is present throughout the entire country. Because of the recent fatal shootings of black men Alton Sterling and Philando Castile at the hands of police officers, multiple marches have occurred in Louisiana, Minnesota, New York and elsewhere in the country.

The Minnesota Lynx also recently voiced their support for Black Lives Matter, when team members wore shirts adorned with the words prior to a game against the Dallas Wings. The shirts resulted in four Minneapolis off-duty cops leaving the event (they were there providing security), as well as removing themselves from a list of officers working future games.

If you happen to be a regular at a nearby Starbucks you might want to change your name to "Black Lives Matter" too. Being supportive of an important movement and getting your morning fix — it's a win-win.

H/T: The Huffington Post