Starbucks’ boss calls anti-bias training historic
Last week Howard Schultz took the same four-hour anti-racial bias training programme that 175,000 Starbucks’ employees took yesterday.
‘‘There were a number of tables where people began to cry,’’ he said of the session with about 40 top Starbucks’ executives at the company’s Seattle headquarters.
Schultz, speaking yesterday to a small group of reporters before the unprecedented afternoon closure of 8000 company-owned US stores, said the tears came from the emotion of the personal stories that executives shared, and reflections on ‘‘the critical importance of what we were about to do.’’
The programme, part of a broader effort, was developed with the help of outside consultants in a little more than six weeks after a Starbucks store manager in Philadelphia called the police on two black men waiting for an associate. Video of the arrests blew up on social media, sparking protests and sending Starbucks into crisis mode. Schultz said the store manager agreed to a separation agreement.
Schultz has long sought to balance the company’s business growth with a social component as he built it from a small chain of cafes modelled on the community-centric espresso bars of Milan to a global coffee titan. ‘‘I can’t think of anything in our history that we feel is as critically important, especially at this moment in time in the country, as this.’’
The Philadelphia arrests laid bare the extent to which Starbucks is not always a welcoming place to everyone, prompting policy changes that allow anyone to stay in the store or use the bathroom regardless of whether they’ve made a purchase (the Philadelphia men had not).
With its very public push to conduct the training, Starbucks has been accused of a ‘‘selfrighteous and disingenuous public-relations stunt’’ – in the words of Orlando political activist T.J. Legacy-Cole – without making meaningful changes that would benefit those impacted by systemic racism.
Schultz said the company has attempted to make amends with the two Philadelphia men with an offer of college tuition, a financial settlement, and a day spent visiting Starbucks headquarters.
He also pointed to stores the company has opened in recent years in communities where it hadn’t previously ventured and programmes to hire young people who are unemployed and not in school – mainly people of colour.
Some Starbucks shareholders have also been critical, calling to ask how much all of this is going to cost, Schultz said.
However, he views it ‘‘as an investment in our people and the long-term culture and values of Starbucks,’’ in the same vein as its stock option grants, health insurance and college tuition benefits.
Moreover, he said, Starbucks employees sent him hundreds of emails supporting the company’s response and looking forward to the training. – TNS