Can you teach employees not to be racist? Coffee giant Starbucks will shut stores around the U.S. on Tuesday to conduct an unprecedented training exercise at its more than 8,000 American outlets.
The initiative, which is expected to last four hours and reach 175,000 employees, was announced by Starbucks management on April 17, as it sought to contain outrage over the arrest of two young black men at one of its cafes in Philadelphia.
The incident five days earlier sparked outrage, protests and anguished soul-searching about America’s lingering problems of discrimination and racial tensions that have deteriorated under the presidency of Donald Trump.
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After the two black men arrived at the Starbucks one of them asked to use the bathroom but was told it was for paying customers only. The pair then sat down to wait for a third person before ordering drinks. The manager called police. A video that went viral showed uniformed officers questioning then handcuffing the two men, who put up no resistance, while a white client repeatedly asks an officer, “What’d they do? What’d they do?”
Sharon Rush, a law professor, hopes that the coffee behemoth will set an example and encourage other companies to step up training on racial discrimination.