A federal judge in Pennsylvania has ruled Starbucks must pay a former Philadelphia-area manager an additional $2.7 million in damages after a jury agreed with her claim that she was wrongly fired for being white in the aftermath of a 2018 incident where the coffee chain was accused of racial bias.
Former Starbucks regional manager Shannon Phillips claims she became a scapegoat in the wake of the controversy in April 2018 when police arrested two Black men in a Rittenhouse Square Starbucks in Philadelphia because they refused to leave the store after being told they could not sit inside without buying anything. A cellphone video of the arrests went viral, leading to a national backlash against the coffee store chain.
Starbucks leadership responded with nationwide racial bias training for over 175,000 company employees. Then-CEO at the time Kevin Johnson, also issued an apology.
In May 2018, Starbucks further followed up with a new policy, making it so even non-paying guests can sit in stores and use its restrooms. Philadelphia police also announced a new policy laying out procedures for officers to arrest a person accused of trespassing on private property.
Related: White Starbucks Exec Files Lawsuit Accusing the Company of Firing Her Because They Needed a Scapegoat Following Arrests of Two Black Men
The two arrested men, young entrepreneurs Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson (23 at the time), were released from custody and reached an agreement with the state of Philadelphia, granted $200,000 to help them in their business venture.
Phillips was fired from Starbucks in what she felt was nothing more than a scapegoat tactic to allow Starbucks to appear as if things were being done about the situation. She believed that as regional manager, she had nothing to do with the arrests of the Black men at the 18th and Spruce Street store.
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