After Philadelphia Shocker, Starbucks to shut 8000 U.S. Stores for “Race Training”

Global coffee-shop chain Starbucks will shut 8,000 of its company owned stores across the U.S. to initiate a “race sensitivity training” on May 29. This announcement comes as the company saw a huge backlash on the streets of Philadelphia and online when two black men were arrested in a Starbucks in Philadelphia, “for sitting and not ordering anything for a considerable period of time.” The manager has been accused of racial profiling by the witnesses and those who frequent the coffee chain.

The coffee giant will instruct almost 175,000 workers in its stores and corporate offices, using a training program that will become part of the on-boarding process for new employees, the company said in a statement on its website today (April 17). The stores will close on the afternoon of Tuesday, May 29, for the training.

The incident that happened on April 12, began thus. The manager at a Starbucks location in Philadelphia, asked two black men to leave the store as they had not ordered anything for sometime after coming in. After the men—who had yet to buy anything and said they were waiting for a friend—refused to leave, the manager called the police, and the men were arrested for trespassing. Video posted by a witness to the incident shows, the friend – a white man come in as the two men are handcuffed – asking what the duo had done. He got no reply and over four police men can be seeing handcuffing the young men.

The backlash against Starbucks has been instantaneous with protests in the store and online. The incident sparked outrage on social media, with a #boycottstarbucks hashtag on Twitter.

Starbucks chief executive Kevin Johnson said on multiple interviews on American cable news networks that the Philadelphia incident was “reprehensible”. In a statement released by him on Tuesday:

“I’ve spent the last few days in Philadelphia with my leadership team listening to the community, learning what we did wrong and the steps we need to take to fix it. While this is not limited to Starbucks, we’re committed to being a part of the solution. Closing our stores for racial bias training is just one step in a journey that requires dedication from every level of our company and partnerships in our local communities.”

The company said that the training programme will “address implicit bias, promote conscious inclusion, prevent discrimination and ensure everyone inside a Starbucks store feels safe and welcome.”

Starbucks has over 28,000 coffee shops worldwide and plans for their race training material to be available to other companies.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 18, 2018 10:37 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).