DADADEL
A barista handed a young woman a Starbucks coffee with a “secret note” intended to rescue her from harm. What followed sparked a heated debate that quickly went viral.
When Brandy Roberson’s 18-year-old daughter stopped at a Starbucks in Texas for a cup of coffee, she had no idea she would soon go viral and become the center of a heated controversy after receiving a “secret note” from a barista.
Concerned for the teenager’s safety as she sat studying at a table, the Starbucks barista handed her a cup with a message written on it: “Are you okay? Do you want us to intervene? If you do, take the lid off the cup.”
Brandy Roberson shared the story in a Facebook post: “My 18-year-old daughter was at Starbucks, alone, the other night. A man came up to her and started talking to her. A barista handed her ‘an extra hot chocolate someone forgot to pick up.‘”
“The man was very loud and animated,” she added. “She looked up and just saw a row of baristas staring at her — ready to step in. It made me feel so grateful that the Starbucks employees were watching out for her. As a mom, that is my worst fear that something would happen to my child and nobody would be there to help.”
She mentioned that her daughter “felt safe” and didn’t remove the lid. However, this sparked a heated debate on social media. “She felt safe and did not remove the lid, but let them know. She said the whole team was watching over her the rest of the time she was there. Thank you to Starbucks for having a great team.”
The “secret note” story and photo went viral after being shared on social media by Call to Activism. “This gave me goosebumps,” they wrote in a post viewed over 20 million times. Many netizens claimed the Starbucks staff had overreacted and lamented the current state of male-female relations.
“Damn, a male adult can’t even try to meet another adult n real life without being presumed a threat. What a world we men live in,” posted one social media user.
Another person commented, “Can’t approach women in a coffee shop (creepy). Can’t approach women at work (unprofessional). Can’t approach women at the gym (distracting, creepy). Can’t approach women at church (no singles). Can’t approach women in public (with friends). What are men supposed to do?”
Author Rachel Wilson wrote, “Feminism has created mass hysteria that men are nothing but violent assault machines and that the only thing stopping them from enslaving the entire female sex is feminist activism and laws. It’s insanity and it must stop. Women’s studies departments should be shut down.”
However, many on social media believed the baristas did the right thing, arguing that the negative reactions from “angry men” only validated the intervention.
“Men in the quotes giving us great examples of why the employees stepped in,” one user noted.
“There’s a difference between the garden-variety guy who just wants to chat with a girl in a coffee shop and one who is making someone feel uncomfortable,” another user wrote. “Not being there it’s hard to know, but the way they described him it sounded like he was being obnoxious and loud.”
Reports indicate that young people today are lonelier and less satisfied than their parents, with fewer romantic partners. This may be because young men are hesitant to approach young women. A 2023 report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that nearly half of U.S. adults experience significant loneliness. A study published on DatePsychology revealed that nearly half of young men under 25 had never approached a woman in person, primarily due to fear of rejection and social consequences.
