All Starbucks Will Close For Racial-Bias Training

Starbucks announced that it would be closing all 8,000 of its U.S. stores on the afternoon of May 29 so that its managers can undergo racial-bias training. The decision came nearly a week after two black men were arrested at a Philadelphia store for trespassing while doing nothing more than waiting for a friend. Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson said that he'd met with and personally apologized to the two men who were arrested. On Monday, demonstrators arrived at the Philadelphia location around 7 a.m., chanting "Starbucks coffee is anti-black" and "We are gonna shut you down" amid demands that the employee who called the cops be fired. (The manager of the store has indeed been fired.) Video of the Thursday arrest shows the men's friend arriving as cops were taking them away in handcuffs, asking incredulously what they'd done wrong.


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