Nonprofits take stand against coffee shop owners

ASHEVILLE — A local business support group has asked that Waking Life Espresso return a loan intended to support a second location as anger mounted Monday over anonymous Internet media posts in which the coffee shop owners boasted of sexual conquests.

That request from Mountain BizWorks came the same day another nonprofit, Our VOICE, said it would reject any donations given to it by Waking Life.

Both moves come amid protests against owners Jared Rutledge, 31, and Jacob Owens, 27, who chronicled their sexual acts with women in online outlets before their identities surfaced, sparking outrage that largely has been directed toward their West Asheville business.

The pair had intended to open a storefront on Patton Avenue in Asheville, and a recent filing with the North Carolina Secretary of State's office indicates Mountain BizWorks had financed the business venture. Rutledge and Owens put up all equipment and inventory for collateral.

On Monday, Patrick Fitzsimmons, executive director of Mountain Bizworks, said his staff had been in contact with the men about the financing.

Staffers told Rutledge and Owens that Mountain BizWorks wanted to recall the loan, Fitzsimmons said, calling the actions of the men "deplorable."

The pair seemed responsive to concerns voiced by the nonprofit, Fitzsimmons said. He added that he could not discuss the amount of the loan or its status.

Rutledge and Owens could not be reached for comment Monday.

That Mountain BizWorks is moving to sever a financial relationship based on questionable personal conduct is a first, Fitzsimmons said.

Should Rutledge and Owens refuse the termination, it's unclear what, if any legal remedy is available.

That move is the latest blow to Waking Life, which on Monday morning opted not to open its doors as a crowd of 50 protested outside.

Early Monday morning, Rutledge and Owens issued a new apology online, offering to donate their business profits through the end of the year to Our VOICE, a local rape prevention and crisis charity.

By early afternoon, Our VOICE had announced it refused to accept the apology or pledged financial donation from Waking Life.

Our VOICE said it would accept donations from people wanting to stand in solidarity with the organization.

"Our VOICE is not in a position of absolving them from their misogyny as it perpetuates a culture of danger for all women and girls," said Angelica Wind, executive director of Our VOICE. "We are very much disturbed and outraged."

In his online apology, Rutledge asked for forgiveness for violating the trust of women involved in intimate encounters, saying he sometimes vented in a hateful and foolish way under the cloak of anonymity.

For Rutledge to reason in this manner is "disturbing," Wind said. "He can't rationalize violence against woman due to his own insecurities around dating."

Owens also offered an online mea culpa, stressing that he was not responsible for blog or Twitter posts, but was aware of their existence and general content. He and Rutledge together produced a podcast.

"Jared and Jacob have a skewed view," Wind said. "From our experience, what they are doing doesn't actually portray this greater group of men who believe in equality and believe in respecting woman and their role in eliminating sexist attitudes and sexual violence."

Sexual violence falls along a spectrum, a continuum that can lead to behaviors that are so egregious they are criminal, said Kristen Houser, a spokeswoman for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, a Pennsylvania-based group that provides materials and training to sexual assault crisis agencies across the country.

However, society at large tends to forget that before a criminal offense has occurred, there are many instances that are troubling and damaging to belief systems, she added.

Offenders are looking for reasons to excuse and sanitize their behavior, and the anonymity of the Internet can normalize what is otherwise considered as socially unacceptable.

"It's a short slope to someone actually carrying out acts of violence," Houser said.

To stop violence, communities and individuals need to empower themselves to promote healthy sexual relationships and proper treatment of women, she said. They need to stand up and say they won't tolerate this type of behavior.

"Asheville hardly needs that lesson, from what I have been reading," she said. "It's encouraging to see that the entire community is standing up and saying this is inappropriate, it has no place here."

Husband and wife team Amy Hamilton and Matthew Ensley, of West Asheville, protested in front of Waking Life on Saturday and Monday. They held a cardboard sign that said "Respect Women."

"We came out because we wanted to come together as a community and protect ourselves, protect our daughters and protect our friends against predatory violence and denigration," said Hamilton, who previously took her teenage daughter to the coffee shop.

This story goes beyond two men, one workplace and some horrifying comments online, she added. It's more about perpetuating a culture that is unsafe for women, one that glorifies violent acts, manipulative behavior and coercion.

"This is dangerous and people deserve to know about it because these are business owners who are preying on their own customers," Hamilton said. "I find it really appalling that I've spent money there. I would never give a penny to them under any circumstance ever again."

The protests and decisions by the nonprofits to distance themselves from Waking Life are just the latest moves in a handful of days that indicate a once-promising business model is in freefall.

On Sunday, four staffers at the French Broad Food Co-Op pulled Waking Life's bottled iced coffee from the store without asking bosses for permission, Bobby Sullivan said.

"I'm the general manager, and at first I thought it would have been good for them to consult with managers first, but the more I thought about it, I realized that if we have a staff person who is uncomfortable, they should be able to take that initiative," he said. "At worst, we will lose a day or two of sales."

In its written policy, the co-op seeks to source items that promote social responsibility, Sullivan said, a tenet Waking Life owners violated.

"We've never faced an issue this cut and dry," Sullivan said. "Business is about relationships, and this is just not the kind of thing you will be able to get away with in a town like Asheville."

He added that he listened to one of the podcasts and was struck that a woman discussed there in derogatory terms was in her early 20s, the same age as Sullivan's oldest of four daughters.

Dorie Clark, a business branding expert who is also an adjunct professor at Duke University, credited Rutledge and Owens for offering apologies that indicate they take full responsibility for their actions.

One typical mistake small business owners make is offering justification for their actions or a half-hearted mea culpa, she said. Therapy and sincere moves to change their behavior might also help, along with offers of reparations.

She suggested a donation to Our VOICE, before learning that offer had been extended and refused.

Because Waking Life and the men had been so tied to the community, there is no clear, guaranteed path to salvaging their business.

"When you have a small business, the owners are the face of that business and it's very hard to separate their actions from the work. In the public's imagination, they are one in the same," she said. "The same forces they were benefiting from — 'We're local. We're part of this community. Support us' — are the same that are coming back to hurt them now."