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After a sit down with the Starbucks manager who called police on two Black customers last week, executive chairman Howard Schultz said he believes there is a “unique opportunity” for the three to meet one another.
Schultz spoke with “CBS This Morning’s” Gayle King on Monday, saying there was no doubt in his mind that last week’s incident at a Philadelphia store was the result of implicit racial bias. As the company now works to move forward, the Starbucks chairman said he feels it would be beneficial for the white manager and the two Black men to make peace.
“… I think there’s a unique opportunity for her and the two gentlemen to sit down and potentially have some kind of reconciliation,” Schultz explained. “I think it is going to be possible. I think she’s interested in doing it.”
The popular coffee chain made headlines after a viral video of two Black men being arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks emerged. The men were sitting at a table waiting for a friend but hadn’t bought a beverage, prompting the manager’s call to police. Patrons were quick call their arrests racially motivated, as no white customers were approached by police for not buying a drink.
The company announced that it will close 8,000 stores next month to educate employees its employees on racial bias.
The manager in question has since left the coffee company, Schultz said. Like the two victims, the chairman believes the manager has suffered too.
“I think for her, she is suffering in her own way,” he told King. “I think she recognizes that perhaps that calls shouldn’t have been made … I don’t think she intended when she made the call for the police to arrive and arrest the two men.”
Watch more of their discussion above.
