1. Is one day of racial-bias training enough to provoke change, or should more be done?
2. Should the officers involved receive any punishment?
3. Is America progressive enough in its fight with racism? If not, how do we push forward?
Thursday, April 26, 2018
Starbucks Closes Stores for Racial Bias Training
On May 29th, Starbucks will close over 8,000 of its stores in order to offer racial-bias training to employees after an incident regarding the arrest of two African-American men in their Philadelphia location. These two men refused to leave after an employee didn't allow them to use the bathroom, which led to the calling of the police by an employee and their eventual arrest. After a video of the arrest exploded on Twitter, with more than 10 million views, protests took place in the store in which the arrests took place along with the hashtag #BoycottStarbucks emerged. In response to the episode, Starbucks will close all their domestic stores in order to provide training, costing them a great deal of money they would have otherwise received. Article
1. Is one day of racial-bias training enough to provoke change, or should more be done?
2. Should the officers involved receive any punishment?
3. Is America progressive enough in its fight with racism? If not, how do we push forward?
1. Is one day of racial-bias training enough to provoke change, or should more be done?
2. Should the officers involved receive any punishment?
3. Is America progressive enough in its fight with racism? If not, how do we push forward?
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After seeing this article, I was surprised that this racial situation has occurred. It is unbelievable that a customer couldn't use the bathroom because of the color of his skin. The racial-bias training should be over a course of time because one day of training would not change the mindset of many employees. The employees should be fired for sure as the customers just wanted to use the bathroom. Officers involved should receive a punishment too because they arrested the two African Americans for not being able to use the bathroom. I believe America should be more clear that no matter your skin color, we are all equal. We could possibly start by ending racial stereotype used in the news broadcasts.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mitchell, the fact that two innocent men were arrested just for attempting to use the bathroom is unacceptable. This event reflects the times of segregation, where bathrooms were separated by the color of people's skin. The employees definitely should be fired, and imprisoned for hate crimes, as well as the officers. I believe that prison will allow them to experience what it's really like to be black in america, where the color of your skin causes people in stores to follow you around, believing you will steal inherently, and being arrested for drugs three times as much. If a black person did the same to a white as seen in starbucks, the white media would immediately begin sending them death threats. So why shouldnt these racist police and employees be put in prison to see the effects of their racism.
ReplyDeleteI think you propose a definitely interesting idea; Although I can see the obvious racism, I'm not sure how this could be characterized as a hate crime, seeing as they did not do any physical harm to the men. In addition, how could prison give these employees and officers an insight as to what it's like to be a free black man in America?
DeleteI think Starbucks is taking a step in the right direction, informing to prevent future racial bias problems. It seemed like there was a lot of confusion in the arrest, so an emphasis on communication, especially in a high stress situation should also be taught in future meetings. I disagree with Jung Haye; the police officers should not go to prison, but instead apologize to the men they arrested and get a second chance to change. To keep fighting racism in America, I think that we should keep discussing the problem of racial bias to bring more awareness and stand up for those who are victim, like how Andrew Yaffe did in this case.
ReplyDeleteThe color of your skin should not be able to determine what you can and cannot do. The fact that this is employee was being so racist even after the brutal efforts to make everyone equal is absolutely unacceptable. Starbucks is taking doing the right things by letting people know that as a whole company they will not allow these kinds of behaviors to occur anymore. The police should have to apologize publicly to these people to ensure this mistake does not continue to occur. However this was a very chaotic case where the police officers were simply trying to do their duty but not knowing the reason why they were called in. We should continue to have protests and have all companies have a training day against racism to try and stop the consequences of these types of actions.
ReplyDeleteOne day of racial bias training will most likely not achieve anything, as it will not fix the attitudes of those who have deep-rooted racism. However, no amount of training will be able to completely remove the preconceived notions of the public. The officers should likely not be punished, since they were simply following procedure, and the employee might have accused the two men of being dangerous over the call, making the arrests justified. America could possibly be considered one of the most liberal countries in the world, so I believe it is quite enough. The main problem is that the US has such a diverse population, it is almost impossible to remove racism.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Abby that the Starbucks' one day training is definitely a step in the right direction, but I doubt that it will do anything to change the minds of racist people. This racial-bias training should have been implemented even before a case like this happened. It is unbelievable how the police arrested the two men even though they didn't do anything wrong. They were simply meeting there for a business meeting, and ended up being arrested for no reason. The officers should definitely be condemned for their act because I feel that police should not be arresting innocent people.
ReplyDeleteI think this incident, and especially its response creates a lot of positive notoriety. Starbucks' actions sets a precedent to respond with education. However I do not believe it is enough to change anything major in terms of racial bias, and isn't enough action for Starbucks to have done. I think they should have implemented a mandatory racial bias training to their new workers and publicized that just as much as their one day closing. I also don't think the officer should be punished for his actions. The whole thing wrong with the situation was that the employee wanted the two men leave. And because it isn't private property, the officer did the right thing as the employee had the right to remove them and they couldn't object, even though the reasoning behind why he wanted them gone isn't ethical. I don't think america is, or ever will be, progressive enough in its fight against racism. America isn't a very proactive country by nature. It was set up to be as good as can be, but stuff like the court were set up to be reactive to injustice. Also america's reliance on this system is best shown with gun control, and how while obviously a huge issue, it only seems to pop up after a mass shootings, and while the frequency of them seem to have caught up to america, it only seemed to "wake up" and react after the Florida shootings. This isn't really a problem in america, it is more something that people need to be aware of when responding to something, and make sure that their reactions are appropriate to make sure they will never have to respond again.
ReplyDeleteLike most people have already said, I believe that the one day of racial bias training is not quite enough to eliminate people's racist views that have been learned since birth. However, that is not really the point of the racial bias training because I believe that it is more of a political statement and a way to calm down the crowd for the event that happened in the Starbucks in Philadelphia. This racism is of course deeply rooted in some areas of the country and people still have to recognize that people in the country live in areas that are not as liberal as we are in a major city. This sort of bubble can lead to false beliefs on how the rest of the country behaves which is often far different than that of an urban central area. So, this applies to racism as it still exists in areas not as liberal and even in some liberal areas. There are just differences between acting on thoughts and keeping them silent.
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ReplyDeleteIt is absolutely appalling that the color of someone's skin still has so much to do with the way they are treated in our country. America is progressive enough in its fight against racism.
We live in a wonderful little bubble in the Bay Area, but unfortunately this bubble of liberalism and open-mindedness doesn't seem to reach much farther than the Bay Area. While yes, day of training against racial bias won’t hurt, it also, in my opinion won’t help a ton. A white human being will never know what it's like to walk into a store and have an employee constantly watching you, barely keeping a distance, because they assume you might steal something - simply because of the color of your skin. They will never go through what someone of color has to go through on a pretty regular basis. So when 77.35% of America is white, this is something that can be sort of concerning. When something doesn’t affect someone they tend not to care as much about it.
The police officers should be condemned for their actions because their actions are simply not okay. Our country needs to get it together because incidents like this happen far more often than should - incidents like this should never happen.
I think more should be done. Racism is not okay, and I don't believe one day of training will be enough to enforce that. People do not realize how terrible racism is until they are being discriminated against. I think the officers should receive a greater punishment. They should have a short jail time or a fine. America should push the fight towards racism more.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mitchell that the employees should be fired because a large corporation like Starbucks would not want this problem to go unsolved. But, one day of training is not going to help change people's beliefs. I think monthly reminders should be implemented to tell people not to be racist. It will be a drag to the people who are not racist, which will intern make them get on the racist employee's back all the time reminding them. I think the police should be fined but not fired. They were only doing what a person was asking, which is mostly their job.
ReplyDelete1) I feel like having a racial-bias training can help employees have a better understanding on the topic. However, a way to prevent this from happening again could be that, when hiring new employees, managers could ask a question that talks about their views on racism towards ethnicities. This could target the workers that would not be the right fit for the job. There are steps that Starbucks or other companies could take to easily solve this problem but one is to target possible racist which will obviously help their company.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Peter in that racial bias training can help at least a little, as far as that goes. However, racial bias in our society is all too prevalent and deeply rooted in our history. In fact, racism starts at the very top these days, with our president. The best way to combat it, in my very poorly informed opinion, is to learn about our stained history. As the saying goes, those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it. We are doing this in class at the moment, learning about racial bias in other countries.
ReplyDeleteOne day of racial bias training is clearly not enough practice. Employees should spend a very long time understanding that all people are equal. This kind of discrimination disgusts me that how someone refuses to allow a man to use the bathroom just because of his skin tone. The employee who did not allow the men to use the bathroom should receive a punishment. The punishment should not be severe but a big warning making sure it does not happen again. Schools should educate more on discrimination and the wrong of it. Bringing awareness is one option to educate people. However, during this situation there may be some confusion and misunderstanding, but because of this we all should learn about racial bias.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe one day of racial training will do much. People will not learn their lessons after only one day of being taught about to properly act around others. Personally, the fact that we must even discuss how to treat others appropriately is ridiculous. However, we must do whatever needs to be done in order to solve this issue. Back to what I was previously saying however, one day of training will not be sufficient enough to cause change in the scenarios people are experiencing. Racial consciousness is like a skill you develop. With conscious practice of it, and consideration towards others, is when one can properly understand how to handle someone. If Starbucks were to do several days of racial training like once a month or so, people can take away more from these sessions and apply it to their daily practices. Hopefully soon this situation can be resolved and we will not hear more stories about racial bias.
ReplyDeleteI believe that one day of racial bias training will not be beneficial. What is being taught at such training cannot be fully absorbed and learned in one session. I think more should be done, especially in today's day and age where we should be way past this problem. I don't think that the officers should necessarily be punished, but I do think that something small could be done, because though they were doing their job, the whole situation was wrong. I believe certain areas, like the Bay Area, has been really progressive in the fight against racism. But, America as a whole has not been nearly progressive enough. Even worse racist crimes are still happening all over America, and people today still believe that one's skin color defines who they are, what they believe, etc. More needs to be done in the fight towards ending racism.
ReplyDeleteI honestly think it's unfair how one store of the chain can disrupt their reputation. One day of training can't change anyone's views on racism. I know racism is a bigger issue in other parts of the world. It's unfortunate that we still have people who can't simply love people for who they are inside. I used to live near Hollywood, you would think that it must be accepting and welcoming there, I can tell you it's not. My point is, people will be racist regardless. I think it's great how Starbucks is taking the initiate to train heir employees. When I first sa this on twitter, I thought it was a publicity stunt. But as a regular Starbucks consumer who literally drinks their coffee everyday, I know they are genuine in their acts and want to make sure their employees get the paper training they need to help them interact with different consumers.
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