Our MAGA Hat Stance

Hi all,

We want to be transparent and put out an official statement regarding the Kenji story. Here is one of the better pieces on the breaking news:

Bay Area Restaurant’s MAGA Hat Ban Not to Everyone’s Taste

Given our outspoken stance on social issues, numerous media outlets (and some of our team) reached out to us for some soundbites and direction.

We will instead give our full stance... or as much as we can succinctly put in writing. And none of this is a slight to Kenji or anyone else in the industry with a similar stance. We support their business decisions as it’s their business. We are huge Kenji fans given we are all from the Bay Area. We just know whatever we say will be passed onto our team— and that’s the real impetus for this statement.

Let’s cut to the chase: our mission is to bridge cultures, so anything that builds walls isn’t our cup of tea. We are steadfast in our mission.

As we wrote before, we believe in empathy-driven methods like South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which strives to create dialogue first. We relate more to Professor X, MLK, and T’Challa than to their counterparts. We strive for openness, reconciliation, and understanding before all else. And we know some may disagree, but that would only prove our point. If you punish us for this stance, then we never had dialogue in the first place.

That being said, few things carry as much loaded baggage as a MAGA hat nowadays, so the person has to know what’s coming. We can’t control outcomes based on short-sighted personal choices. It’s like wearing a Dodgers jersey to a Giants game— you are asking for it... on a whole other level. You do reap what you sow.

We always say that “dialogue wins.” It’s the only way to start the healing process that we are desperately in need of, so we will say on record for the first and last time: if someone with a MAGA hat comes in, we would serve them a huge dose of love and acceptance in addition to our boba. Now, if they display behavior like saying coded threats or showing signs of escalation and don't want dialogue, we will gladly show them the door. Btw, we support an audience clapping on the way out as it’ll make our security footage much more entertaining!

Dialogue has to go both ways. If someone simply makes a purchase and doesn't cause trouble, we believe our ability to bridge cultures will make a bigger impact down the road. The MAGA hat wearer should already know we are Progressives given our ethos, locations, and content, so we don’t need to shove it down their throats. High road, long game.

In the end, we have to learn that it’s all contextual and nuanced— something we, as a society, forgot along the way. We probably don’t have many MAGA-supporting customers, but if you are one and happen to be reading this, know that we don’t see eye to eye and prioritize a different set of values. But if you still come in knowing all that, we will gladly serve you. Our balls taste like magic.

And if we ever come into your turf wearing our Boba Guys Pride or “Progress, Not Perfection” shirts, we expect the same treatment. If not, all bets are off. Professor X and T’Challa have special powers, too.

Onwards,

The Boba Guys

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Special thanks to a couple friends who encouraged me (Andrew) to be bold with our mission. We originally wanted to sit this one out but y’all know we can’t do that. 😬🖤

“It’s not just the Empire that knows how to crucify.” - Jason Chu