Stop the Intolerance for Lactose Intolerants!

My name is Betsy. I teach Government in a low income community in Northern California. My students are learning how to advocate for themselves and right the wrongs they see in the world around them. Help me teach them an important lesson about a little known civil rights issue.

Some facts:
-40 Million Americans are lactose intolerant
-75% of African American, Jewish, Mexican American and Native American people are lactose intolerant
-90% of Asian Americans are lactose intolerant
-Starbucks charges $.60 extra for soy milk

We live in a world where menu items are split between meat options and vegetarian options. I'm all for this, but vegetarians are vegetarians because they choose to be vegetarians. Lactose intolerants do not. We aren't meant to process another animal's milk into adulthood, and it's not our faults that it makes many of us violently ill. But menus rarely separate items into dairy and non dairy categories. This is DISCRIMINATION and I'll tell you why.

One thing that won't help expand the diversity of potentially new customers at places like Starbucks? Jacking the price up from a $3.65 regular latte to $4.25 for those of us who can't metabolize lactose. It used to be that if you were a loyal customer, you got your soy milk for free. Last year, Starbucks changed that policy. I have a gold card and what do I get with it? $.60 more per cup for my loyalty. Thanks Starbucks.

Maybe Starbucks hasn't heard a lot of complaints, as its predominantly caucasian, upper class customers are largely unaffected. Maybe they don't care about increasing the diversity of their customers. Maybe they don't know the facts about the discriminatory impact of this practice.

That's where YOU come in. Let's let them know that we care.

Join me in stopping the INTOLERANCE for LACTOSE INTOLERANCE!

STARBUCKS, please consider making all of your milk the same price. Thank you for your consideration.