BLACKSWAN’s Fatou Goes Viral For Her Comments About Pro-Palestine Boycott

Not many idols have explicitly spoken about it.
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BLACKSWAN‘s Fatou is garnering attention for her recent comments about American coffee chain Starbucks.

Fatou
Fatou | DR Music

The death toll in the Gaza Strip has surpassed 31,000 since October due to Israeli attacks, reported the Gaza-based Palestinian Health Ministry on Tuesday. The surviving Palestinians in Gaza are struggling to survive as thousands are injured, starving, displaced, and lost homes, family, and friends.

Around 1 in every 25 Palestinians in Gaza are now injured or dead, Islamic Relief says as Israel’s bombardment continues unabated.

— ReliefWeb

Palestinians pray over bodies of people killed in an Israeli bombardment, brought from the Shifa hospital, before burying them in a mass grave in the town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Nov. 22.Mohammed Dahman/AP
“Palestinians pray over bodies of people killed in an Israeli bombardment, brought from the Shifa hospital, before burying them in a mass grave in the town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, November 22.” | Mohammed Dahman/AP

People worldwide are attempting to make a difference concerning this humanitarian issue by joining global boycotts. BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) is an entity that lists brands that they believe should be boycotted. As the world has become more aware of the humanitarian issue in Palestine, the Palestinian BDS National Committee shared a list of brands to boycott, placing them in categories by industry. Popular fast-food chains, such as McDonald’s and Starbucks, are organic targets, although the latter was not on BDS’s boycott list.

The BDS movement did not initiate these grassroots boycott campaigns but is in support of them due to these brands openly supporting Israel’s genocide against Palestinians.

— BDS on organic boycott targets

bds boycott

In October, the worker-led union of popular American coffee chain Starbucks, representing at least 9,000 employees, shared a post via X (formerly Twitter). In the statement, Starbucks Workers United stood in solidarity with Palestine.

As of June 2023, over 8,000 workers at over 360 Starbucks stores in at least 40 states in the United States have voted to unionize, primarily with Workers United. As of March 2023 none have yet enacted a collective bargaining agreement.

— Wikipedia

Shortly after, Starbucks released its own statements, which denounced the union. Starbucks did not want to be associated with the union’s stance.

Starbucks wanted to stop the union from using its name and logo, saying the company had no official stance on the war and the union’s post might confuse customers. But many boycotters, like Blake, thought Starbucks should offer more support to the people of Gaza.

— AP News

Starbucks statement
| Starbucks
Starbucks
| Starbucks

Starbucks then sued its employees on October 18 for trademark infringement. The company claimed the social media post angered its customers and had the potential to damage the company’s reputation. Starbucks’ actions only disappointed customers.

Starbucks
| Starbucks
Starbucks
| Starbucks

Since then, Starbucks has been boycotted worldwide as customers thought it was unethical of Starbucks to sue its employees for taking a stance on the humanitarian issue. Consequently, Starbucks lost $12 billion USD in market value, with some locations even closing and filing bankruptcy in many countries.

However, some netizens have defended Starbucks. They noted that some international Starbucks stores are independent. For example, Starbucks Coffee Korea’s current CEO, Son Jung Hyun, is of the global retail tech company Shinsegae I&C. Starbucks reportedly has no shares in Starbucks Coffee Korea. Still, the franchise does pay 5% royalties for using the brand’s name and logo. Additionally, as of February 27, Workers United and Starbucks began discussions to build “a productive relationship in the best interests of Starbucks partners.” 

We have agreed with Workers United that we will begin discussions on a foundational framework designed to achieve collective bargaining agreements, including a fair process for organizing, and the resolution of some outstanding litigation.

— Starbucks

Starbucks is still being widely boycotted. So, K-Pop fans have been shocked and disappointed to see several of their favorite idols drinking out of Starbucks cups recently. On the other hand, some loyal fans have continued to defend idols who drink Starbucks. Some suggested that they might not be aware of the boycott in South Korea or that it’s unrelated if a store is independent.

Now, a K-Pop idol is going viral for their comments about Starbucks.

In a recent TikTok Live, BLACKSWAN’s Fatou attempted to do a stereotypical “valley girl” accent. Starbucks was brought up when a discussion started about what a “valley girl” might say. Immediately, Fatou shot that down, declaring that the coffee chain was canceled and that they “don’t like Starbucks over here.” When her offscreen member(s) explained that historically, valley girls and Starbucks were often associated, Fatou said that even then, those people likely don’t like Starbucks anymore either.

Fatou: No, Starbucks is canceled! We don’t like Starbucks over here.

Offscreen BLACKSWAN member(s): We don’t go to Starbucks.

Fatou: We don’t go to Starbucks.

Offscreen BLACKSWAN member(s): I’m not saying I go to Starbucks. That’s what they normally do.

Fatou: Yeah, but we don’t like Starbucks. Starbucks, boo. We don’t do that.

The clip went viral with 1.9M views at the time of writing. Netizens praised Fatou for being outspokenly against Starbucks. They said that she is proof that idols can’t not be aware of the humanitarian issue and boycotts by now.

Netizens also raised other points concerning the matter. Global boycotts and protests occur everywhere, including in South Korea. Many idols are actively on social media, both publicly and privately.

Previously, Fatou spoke out in support of Palestine. Read more below.

BLACKSWAN’s Fatou Speaks Out In Solidarity With Palestine

Source: NPR

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