Starbucks To Shut Down Stores For Self-Flagellating Racial Bias Training

By Andrea Ruth | 6:00 PM on April 17, 2018

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/// A couple dozen protesters gathered Sunday afternoon outside the Philadelphia Starbucks where two black men were arrested in an incident that prompted social media outrage and an apology from the coffee chain's CEO. Several demonstrators passed around a bullhorn and gave speeches expressing their outrage over the Thursday arrest. Police say Starbucks employees had called 911 to say the men were trespassing. The men were released "because of lack of evidence" that a crime had been committed. (AP Photo/Ron Todt)

Starbucks announced Tuesday it will be closing 8,000 of its stores nationwide to send its 175,000 employees to “racial bias training” boot camp following an incident last week in which two black men were arrested in one of its stores for loitering.

In a statement from Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson, the company announced the closure would happen on May 29. Johnson prostrated himself and his company further for the mishandling of the situation:

“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,” Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson said in a statement.

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

Surely, the thousands upon thousands of dollars the coffeeshops will lose in this exercise in gratuitous self-flagellation will be enough to settle the mobs, right? Right?!

Not likely. As we know, even if you are a full-fledged white-guilt adherent, you can never be sorry or abnegate enough to make up for things you probably didn’t do as a white person. And as former Attorney General Eric Holder will be one of the people guiding the instruction, you can bet this will be made clear in one way or another.

This is clear from the fact that a company that has had a left-wing, progressive culture since its beginnings in Seattle, and held it firmly, is putting its employees through further training on how to treat customers of color.

The gentlemen who were arrested deserved to have what happened to them addressed and the apology they received from Starbucks was warranted, but honestly, as one person on Twitter astutely pointed out:

“A few years ago Starbucks employees were told to randomly talk about race with customers. Now they have to sit through a day long “how to not be racist” seminar.”

A few years ago Starbucks employees were told to randomly talk about race with customers. Now they have to sit through a day long "how to not be racist" seminar.

— Holden (@Holden114) April 17, 2018