COFFEE TALK

Starbucks to close all stores 1 day for bias training

STARBUCKS WANTS its workers to wake up and smell the bigotry.

In an attempt to keep a bitter recent racial incident from boiling over, the java giant announced Tuesday that it will close its U.S. stores for one day next month so staffers can take “racial-bias education” classes.

More than 8,000 Starbucks shops across the country will shut down on May 29 so that nearly 175,000 employees can take antidiscrimination classes, CEO Kevin Johnson said.

The grounds for the racial sensitivity eye-openers: an incident last week at a Philadelphia Starbucks in which two black men were arrested after they asked to use the bathroom.

“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,” Johnson said in a statement.

“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.”

Protesters blew off steam at the coffee kingpin’s downtown Philadelphia cafe, where cops cuffed two African-American men who tried to use the bathroom last Thursday.

The female manager told a police dispatcher that there were “two gentlemen” at the coffee shop who were “refusing to make a purchase or leave,” according to a recording of the 911 call released by police.

The unnamed manager has since been placed on leave, a Starbucks representative told the Daily News.

An African-American woman who manages a Starbucks on the Upper West Side said she was stunned by the Philly incident.

“Our store is not like that,” the manager, who declined to give her name, told The News. “Our city is not like that. New York is a melting pot.”

Sana Gaspard, a Pittsburgh woman sipping a latte at the Upper West Side location Tuesday afternoon, said the anti-discrimination classes are “a great idea.”

“I was upset and disgusted by how they treated those two gentlemen,” Gaspard, 36, said. “My goal was to never give Starbucks another dollar. I’ve tried avoiding them. But they're the only one with Wi-Fi.”

Next month’s classes will focus on ways to promote inclusion and prevent implicit barista biases, Johnson said.

“While this is not limited to Starbucks, we’re committed to being a part of the solution,” he said.

The Thursday arrest was caught on video (photo), and the Seattle-based coffee company’s previous apologies have done little to calm the protesters.

“Starbucks coffee is antiblack,” about two dozen protesters chanted as they crowded into the Philly location Monday morning.