Phoebe Barr ‘19
After a Facebook video went viral in early April showing two black men being arrested, apparently without cause, in a Philadelphia Starbucks, the company has responded in numerous ways to outrage and calls to boycott the popular coffee chain.
The New York Times reports that Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson were waiting for a friend at a Starbucks in downtown Philadelphia; they had not purchased anything, and a manager reported them to the police for trespassing. Soon afterward the men were arrested. Starbucks’ usual policy is to allow people who have not bought anything to remain in the shop. The caption on the video that went viral read, “All the other white… [people] are wondering why it’s never happened to us when we do the same thing.”
“Personally, I was disappointed that it was Philly,” said Walidah Justice, Episcopal Academy’s Director of Diversity and Inclusion. “That makes it even more personal. I could have been in that Starbucks. My first instinct was, I have to question whether I go to Starbucks tomorrow.”
In response to reactions such as this, the company’s Twitter officially apologized for the arrest on April 14. Later the Starbucks CEO himself, Kevin Johnson, released a statement on the Starbucks web page calling the incident “reprehensible” and “disheartening.” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross, on the other hand, asserted that the policemen who arrived at the Starbucks, in arresting the two men for trespassing, had followed policy and done nothing wrong. He later asserted that the police force undergoes anti-bias training. Another spokesman for the police confirmed that an investigation of Philadelphia’s police department is underway.
Nelson and Robinson have reached a settlement in a suit against the city of Philadelphia. The city will spend $200,000 to fund aid programs for young entrepreneurs. In addition, each man will receive a symbolic $1.
On May 29th, Starbucks has confirmed, it plans to close its stores for an afternoon of anti-bias training. “I think that’s good,” said Sydney Zebrowitz ‘19, “but I also think the manager herself was at fault.” She maintained that “anti-bias training is good for everyone, but it wasn’t Starbucks’ fault.”
Nevertheless, response seems to be positive to Starbucks’ taking responsibility for the incident. “Their execution was quick and responsive,” said Justice. “When they announced they would be doing a training company-wide, I thought, that’s fantastic, that’s exactly what they need to be doing. I will say this: it has to be an ongoing training. My sense is that that’s what it’s going to be, but you don’t do this one and done. You do ongoing training.” She also reacted well to the news that the manager at the store, who made the call to the police, will no longer be working there. “I think that’s fine, but I think they should still have a conversation with her, so she can have a better mindset at her next place of work. The other piece I would add to that is that I would want to talk to the police.” She described the behavior of the police as an “overreaction.”
Justice also predicted the impact this incident and Starbucks’ response might have on the Episcopal community. “A majority of students here probably fell into the camp of the white woman who took the video. Their mindset is, I go into Starbucks all the time. Sometimes I buy stuff, sometimes I don’t, but it’s an open space. I think many of our students were probably highly surprised – I’ll say that many African-American students were probably not that surprised.” Laura Lewis ‘19, who said that her African-American father was outraged by the scandal, described her own lack of surprise that such an incident occurred “in America.”
“But there may have been students,” said Justice, “who looked at that story and thought, I’m not connected to that. We’re on the Mainline. Some students look at Philadelphia, and it’s so far away, they might have had a disconnect from that encounter. That’s why we want to look at this entire area, whether you live on the mainline or in Philly, as one community. When someone hurts a member of that community, it should also hurt members of this community. How can we all be better?”