Last weekend, two black men in Philadelphia were arrested in a Starbucks for sitting at a table. This turned into a media firestorm, highlighting injustices people of color face every day–even when they’re just sitting quietly at a café.
Today, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson announced his plan to close every company-owned U.S.-based store on May 29 to provide its nearly 175,000 employees with “racial-bias education.”
According to the company’s blog post, the education program will be developed by a slew of national and community leaders, including “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.”
The company adds that it is in the process of reviewing its training and practices.
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