*Michelle Saahene, a Black woman, and Melissa DePino, a white woman, came together to start an anti-racism non-profit after witnessing racism at Starbucks. They are now at odds because of their cultural differences, according to multiple reports.
Both Saahene and DePino witnessed the 2018 arrest of two innocent Black businessmen at a Philadelphia Starbucks that was captured on video. In the 46-second clip, Saahene says, “They didn’t do anything. I saw the entire thing.”
As Yahoo reports, DePino tracked down Saahene before posting her footage of the wild scene online.
“I really just did a simple thing,” DePino explained to The Los Angeles Times in a 2018 interview. “I witnessed something wrong and spoke up about it and shared it in my social network, which happens to be mostly white. That brought attention to this issue that really happens all the time.”
Saahene and DePino developed a bond that led to them launching Privilege to Progress. As Yahoo reports, their purpose was to inform people about racism within the workplace. Their efforts led to P2P becoming a go-to resource for major brands and companies, including Google and MIT. Jada Pinkett Smith even invited them to appear on “Red Table Talk.”
“White people are tired of hearing this story,” Saahene told attendees at paid engagements, per the LA Times. “We’re tired of living it, too. If you want to see racism dismantled, you have to show up to the conversation.”
In the end, P2P would be short-lived after Saahene said she “started to realize that I was the draw: my skin, my story,” she told the Los Angeles Times.
“I was growing faster and thinking about this all at a deeper, more complex level. … I told her the pain I was feeling about how we were making money off of this. Her responses were cold,” Saahene continued.
DePino, who managed P2P’s finances and social media pages, allegedly disagreed with Saahene’s suggestion that she deserved 50% of the profits.
According to Yahoo, Saahene called DePino “manipulative” in a social media post and discussed “the challenges of working with white women in racial justice.”
“I thought we were working things out. I thought we were best friends,” DePino told the Los Angeles Times. “Instead, I learned that we were not friends anymore. … The organization had a mission and she no longer supported it.”
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