Former Starbucks Manager Awarded $25M Settlement After Infamous Arrest Of 2 Black Men

A former regional manager of a Philadelphia Starbucks has been awarded $25 million following a lawsuit against the coffee corporation in which she alleged that she was fired because she was white, according to The New York Times. The New York Times reports that, in April 2018, two Black men entered a Starbucks in Rittenhouse Square Neighborhood, where they waited for a business meeting with a white man who had not yet arrived. The two men were waiting in the coffee shop prior to ordering when one of the men requested to use the bathroom. He was denied and an employee asked them to leave. After the two men remained, an employee called the police who then arrested the pair. This incident, which was recorded and posted online accumulating millions of views, sparked national outrage and boycotts.

The Chief Executive of Starbucks, Kevin R. Johnson, issued a public apology and condemned the employee’s actions on Starbucks’ official site. According to the New York Times, the corporation shut down 8,000 Starbucks locations to teach employees about racial bias, and the regional manager of the shop, Shannon Phillips, was subsequently terminated from her position.

The public backlash to the arrests was swift as was her firing, which came less than one month after the video’s release according to Newsone. Upon her dismissal, Phillips filed a lawsuit against her former employer, claiming that she had been fired on account of her race, CNN reports. Phillips sued the Starbucks company for the loss of earning capacity, benefits, “pain and suffering, embarrassment, humiliation, loss of self-esteem, mental anguish, and loss of life’s pleasures,” Newsone reports. Now, five years after the incident, she is receiving compensation.

CNN states that Phillips has denied any involvement in the two men’s arrests and claims that she was fired for opposing placing the white district manager at the 18th and Spruce Streets store on administrative leave. According to Newsone, the district manager of the location had been facing administrative leave for allegedly paying Black employees a lower salary than white workers.

Newsone reports that, in her lawsuit, the former Starbucks employee stated that Starbucks tried to “punish white employees who had not been involved in the arrests, but who worked in and around the city of Philadelphia, in an effort to convince the community that it had properly responded to the incident.” The suit also alleges that Starbucks did not take action against the store’s Black regional manager, who is being accused of promoting the employee who did contact the police during the incident.

According to Newone, Phillips asserts that her performance has been more than good, having received a bonus just one month before she was excused from her role. She also claims that she was set to be promoted before the arrests took place.