INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
of alleged racial bias at Starbucks has surfaced in the days since two black men were arrested while waiting at one of the coffee chain's
Philadelphia stores.A video of the incident, taken at a Torrance, California, store and posted in January, shows a black man claiming he was
denied access to a bathroom while a white man was given the entry code
Neither of the men was a paying customer.The video emerged amid outrage over the Philadelphia arrests, which protesters said exemplified the
racial disparities that still exist in this country
The arrests, which occurred last week, led Starbucks chief executive Kevin Johnson to personally apologize to the men involved and announce
the closure of more than 8,000 U.S
stores on May 29, so that nearly 175,000 employees could receive "racial-bias education" training.In the California incident, the black man
recording the video - who KABC-TV identified as 26-year-old Brandon Ward - asks a white customer who used the bathroom if he had any trouble
Ward wasn't able to himself."Have you purchased anything in here today" Ward asks the customer."No, but I was just about to," the customer
said."But before you made a purchase they let you use the restroom" Ward asks."I just asked for the code," the customer said."You asked for
the code and they gave it to you, right" Ward asks
"Before you made the purchase"That's right, the customer indicated
Ward, realizing the discrepancy, went to the coffee bar to address it with a woman who identified herself as the store manager
She told him to stop recording."This is a private business," she told Ward
Ward kept recording."You are actually not allowed to be in here anymore
You need to leave," she told Ward."Is it my skin color" Ward asked her
"Is it my skin color"The video, which Ward posted to his Facebook page two days after the Philadelphia incident, had nearly 5,500 views by
Activist Shaun King posted it to Twitter, where it was retweeted nearly 50,000 times.In a statement to The Post, a Starbucks spokeswoman
said the company takes the video of the Torrance incident "and the commentary surrounding it" seriously."[We] are working closely with the
team to learn from our mistakes," she said
"We are fully investigating our store practices and guidelines across the company
In addition to our own review we will work with outside experts and community leaders to understand and adopt best practices, including
unconscious bias training."Starbucks said the training curriculum planned for its employees next month will be developed with input from
national and local experts on confronting racial bias
They include 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; former U.S
attorney general Eric Holder Jr.; Heather McGhee, president of policy center Demos; and Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation
League.Ward acknowledged the company's apologies, but said they are useless until the company changes its behavior."If you have a policy,
you should abide by those guidelines for everyone," he told KABC-TV
"You can't sit here and segregate things, so you might as well put on the store with your policy, 'Whites Only,' at the end."On Thursday, at
at a Philadelphia Starbucks at the corner of 18th and Spruce streets, a female employee called police to report "two gentlemen in my cafe
that are refusing to make a purchase or leave," according to the 911 call, which was released Tuesday
Officers arrived at the Starbucks about 4:41, according to the tape, and at 4:44, officers requested backup and a supervisor for "a group of
males causing a disturbance."By 5 p.m., the officers were headed to their headquarters with two arrests.The tense arrests were captured on
at least two cellphone videos, which showed at least six Philadelphia police officers standing over two seated black men, asking them to
One officer said that the men were not complying and were being arrested for trespassing, according to The Post's Rachel Siegel and Alex
One of the videos had more than 10 million views by Tuesday afternoon.The men were held for nine hours before they were released, said
criminal defense attorney Lauren Wimmer, who represented the men over the weekend when they potentially faced charges
No charges were filed, authorities said.The Starbucks store was temporarily closed because of protests outside but reopened Tuesday
morning.(This story has not been edited by staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
