Victoria coffee shop faces backlash for job ad saying white cis males at ‘back of the line’

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Bows & Arrows Coffee Roasters is facing backlash after it posted a job ad on Instagram that said white cis-gendered men would be at the “back of the line.”

Bows & Arrows co-owner Drew Johnson says the company has made a business of ‘doing it right’, but some think a recent Instagram post of theirs advertising that they are hiring, got it all wrong.

“At this time, [white] cis males are back of the line,” the post reads.

 

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A post shared by @bowscoffeeroasters

Cis means someone whose gender identity corresponds to their sex assigned at birth.

Someone posted to Reddit with the headline “bows coffee not hiring white cis males”, which locally went viral. The loudest voices online called it reverse racism.

Johnson disagrees.

“We’re seeing a lot of white male hurt feelings, just straight up nationalism disguised as calls for equality,” said Johnson, referring to comments being made online.

Johnson further clarified that they wanted to temporarily deprioritize the hiring of white cis males because they have more than 50 per cent on their 10-person staff at the moment.

“A room stacked with white males has issues that are foreseeable, and therefore we wanted to anticipate that and prepare for how we want the workplace to look,” said Johnson.

Where he was willing to make an apology was with how this hiring practice may unintentionally exclude members of the LGBTQ2+ and BIPOC community unless they “outed” themselves, or are white-passing.

“That’s understandable and that’s what I apologized for online, it was careless and reckless,” said Johnson, referring to a new Instagram post added Monday afternoon.

 

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A post shared by @bowscoffeeroasters

Meanwhile, as they chase the perfect java, Johnson is doubling down on what he says is an ‘affirmative hiring practice’.

“We’ll never just close the door on people that’s why I said back of the line. It was flippant, it was problematic, but there’s still a line,” said Johnson.

Kori SidawayKori Sidaway

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