White Rhino Coffee is a Dallas-born and brewed coffee shop. After originally opening in 2007 as a third space for all, the aqua-hued cafe now has more than a dozen locations across North Texas. Now, as it takes on a new phase of expansion, the company faces accusations of dismantling its historically inclusive workplace culture as it seeks to make significant changes to its look.
Early this year, the corporate office instructed cafe employees to offer ICE agents first-responder discounts during what was a tense time for the country in the wake of Renee Good being shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. Just a few months prior to that, the Dallas ICE field office was the site of a deadly sniper shooting that gained international attention.
With a Hispanic, Black, queer and transgender staff, not to mention frequent international travelers at the downtown location, shop manager Margot Stacy was nervous about the regular presence of ICE agents from a nearby facility. She inadvertently triggered the first-responder directive when she asked leadership if they could refuse service to agents. That’s when leadership told cafes, ironically on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, that not only would they have to serve ICE agents, but they would be required to extend a first-responder discount to them…