HOW TO THINK ABOUT IT
Piping hot pacifism. Recognizing that young people are often radicalized through discussion and social interaction, Egypt’s trying to fight fire with fire — with the country’s café culture as the battleground. A government program to send moderate clerics into cafés to preach tolerance is the latest plan to combat terrorism … though there’s no guarantee it will make a real difference.
Lend a hand. Deaf culture can often be tough for the hearing to access, but in cafés like 1000 &1 Signes in Paris, deaf owners welcome outsiders into their world, teaching basic sign language to patrons trying to order a glass of wine. It’s just one of a number of businesses that have emerged around the hope of breaking through stereotypes and misconceptions about how deaf people can participate in society at large.
On the right. While hipster coffee shops have long been associated with political liberalism — and chains like Starbucks double down on that with commitments to progressive causes like hiring refugees and veterans — some independent cafés in the U.S. are making their conservative ideology a selling point. Owners of joints like Black Rifle Coffee Company and Lake City Coffee, for example, let their right-wing flags fly while emphasizing that everyone is welcome.
Drop by drop. While Starbucks-style coffee shops are ubiquitous in the U.S., in Kyrgyzstan they’re anything but. The blooming of café culture in Bishkek is a measure of the former Soviet republic’s progress toward embracing an increasingly outward-looking future. While coffee chains are flourishing, baristas and owners still say they’re struggling with vestiges of a corrupt bureaucracy that demands bribes as the cost of doing business.
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