Trying to cool off
the controversy after two black men were arrested in one of its stores, Starbucks says it will close more than 8,000 stores for several hours next month to conduct racial-bias training.
NEW YORK — Starbucks, moving to confront a racially charged uproar over the arrest of two black men at one of its stores in Philadelphia, plans to close more than 8,000 stores across the country for several hours next month to conduct racial-bias training for nearly 175,000 workers.
The announcement Tuesday comes after the arrests sparked protests and calls for a boycott on social media. A video shows police talking with two black men seated at a table. After a few minutes, officers handcuff the men and lead them outside as other customers say they weren't doing anything wrong. Philadelphiaarea media said the two were waiting for a friend.
Starbucks, once ridiculed for urging workers to write “Race Together” on cups to start a national conversation on race relations, has found itself through the looking glass: under fire for its treatment of blacks.
Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson called the arrests “reprehensible.” He apologized to the pair in person, a lawyer for the men said. Starbucks also said the employee who called police no longer works at the store.
Johnson had also promised to revamp store management training to include “unconscious-bias” education. Starbucks said its U.S. company-owned stores and corporate offices will be closed on the afternoon of May 29 for the training, which will eventually be incorporated into the instruction process for newly hired employees.
In 2015, then-CEO Howard Schultz shrugged off the “Race Together” fiasco as a well-intentioned mistake and pressed on with his public efforts to engage in the debate over race in America. Johnson was scrambling to keep the Philadelphia incident from shattering the message Schultz was going for: Starbucks stands for something beyond profit.