The owner of a black-centric Memphis coffee shop says he will not relocate even though they’ve been robbed — twice in one week. The bandits stole a stove.
The “Anti Gentrification Cxffee Club and Cxffee Black” has a mission to “return coffee to a tool that is actually empowering for black and brown people.”
Bartholomew Jones is the owner of “Cxffee Black” and he told WMC he’s going to stay in business at Summer Avenue and National Street.
“Just as many people are participating in break-ins and muggings and crime in the city,” he told the television station. “What would it be if that many more people chose to participate in black-on-black grind in this city?
The owner has a big problem with all you folks moving into his neighborhood who own poodles and shop at Whole Foods — hence the name “Anti-Gentrification Cxffee Club.”
“What if we created a place for us, by us? What would that look like? Could we return coffee to a tool that is actually empowering for Black and brown people, and something that supports our neighborhood,” he told the Memphis Flyer in 2022.
He also told the Memphis Flyer that “coffee at his shop is pay-what-you-can with suggested prices, but “it’s free for neighbors who need it.”
If that’s true, then why did he call the police when his store was robbed? Maybe one of his neighbors was just in need of a stove?
One of my listeners sent me a note about the coffee shop — pointing out they owned a French bulldog. They wondered if they would be permitted into the coffee shop. Probably not.
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