Starbucks Wants to Educate Its Employees on Racial-Bias — Is it Intentional?
A look into Starbucks discrimination and actions set forth.
In the past few days, Starbucks has taken a big spot in the the media in light of an incident that took place in their downtown Philadelphia store on Thursday, April 12th.
Police arrested two African-American men who were waiting in line for a friend to join them. The men were then asked to leave by a Starbucks employee, later calling the police, reporting that they were “refusing to make a purchase or leave.” There have been several video footages that shows Philadelphia police officers standing over the two seated black men, asking them to leave. One of the officers said that the men were not complying and were being arrested for trespassing.
But why were they asked to leave?
The two men were taken out in handcuffs, and were held for nearly nine hours before being released. They were released with no charges filed.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenny met with Starbucks executives regarding the situation and made a very interesting statement:
“This is not just a Starbucks issue. This is a societal issue. People can react differently to others based on skin color, and that is wrong. We have work to do, and we need to do so productively.” — Mayor Kenny
Actions to improve.
On April 14th, Starbucks made an announcement apologizing for its actions on behalf of its Philadelphia store. Later in the week, Starbucks CEO, Kevin Johnson, went on Good Morning America to address the issue.
“The circumstances surrounding the incident and the outcome in our store on Thursday were reprehensible. They were wrong,” says Johnson.
He gives a sincere apology to the two males that visited the store, and even wishes that he can sit down with them to discuss steps that can be taken in the future to ensure this never happens again.
According to the interview, Starbucks employees are given a list of scenerios, that when happening, are directed to call the police. Johnson indicated that “In this case, none of that occurred and it was completely inappropriate to call the police.”
Training for employees.
Starbucks made an additional announcement to close its 8,000 stores on May 29th to administer over 175,000 nationwide employees and managers “racial-bias training.” Now, shutting down 8,000 stores is surely an expensive action to take. To the media, it displays the values that Starbucks wishes to exhibit and the commitment to its company clientele interactions.
“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,” Johnson said in a private meeting on Monday.
Training will be geared toward preventing discrimination, promoting inclusion, and ensuring people feel welcome at Starbucks locations nationwide. Experts such as Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Heather McGhee, president of Demos; former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, and Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, will all work to help develop the training and curriculum administered to nearly its 175,000 workers.
Intentionality.
As it may seem like these actions are the best strides for Starbucks to take in this time of social media backlash, we must call into question whether or not these actions are intentional.
Before this incident occurred, Starbucks did not make it a priority to administer “racial-bias training.” By telling the media that they will now close their 8,000+ stores across the nation, it implies that this was not prioritized, nor was foresight of situations like these happening in the future taken into account.
It can be very difficult to decipher true intentionality on not only individuals but entities as a whole when action is only being taken because of wide spread criticism being shown on you.
Over time, we have been conditioned to sometimes put on a facade when we want to illicit a certain impression to the media, our friends, and sometimes our self. In this situation, look at what Starbucks is doing and their strategy.
To some, the actions that Starbucks is taking might have helped you sleep better at night, but for others, it may only be just another strategy to deceive us that we will not fall for.
The great John Wooden once said: “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are…the true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching.”
As we think about issues such as this, where progression toward improvement are not taken until everyone realizes the wrongdoings and all eyes are on you — We must be proactive in developing a foundational understanding of not only ourselves, but others. We must think about the ways that our implicit and explicit biases play into the way we see others, and how we can overcome those to see everyone as equals.
Redesign America is a Medium Publication edited by Mustafa Ali-Smith, Corey D. Smith, and Anu Kumar. Follow us on twitter @RedesignAmerica for all updates.
