It is an incredible affair as only America has the secret. A story in which skin color is at the heart of the debates in the court responsible for judging the dispute. Shannon Phillips was the Starbucks store manager for three US East Coast states – Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland – from 2005 to 2018. white.
The story begins on April 12, 2018. Two black men enter a Starbucks in Philadelphia to wait for a colleague before a meeting, but do not consume. One of the two men asks to use the restroom but the store manager refuses him and offers him a drink, explaining that the restroom is for paying customers only. The tone then rises and the store manager ends up calling the police, reporting “two men who refuse to make a purchase or leave” the cafe.
On the spot, the police arrest the two men, under the eye of smartphones which quickly broadcast videos of the arrest on social networks. The two suspects, arrested for trespassing and disturbing public order, were released that evening for lack of evidence and the Philadelphia police commissioner personally apologized to them. But the videos posted on social networks have had time to have their effect. In the days that followed, several demonstrations were organized in front of the Starbucks store.
Shannon Phillips, who is in charge of the management of Starbucks stores in the city of Philadelphia, goes there. She then appoints new managers, and receives, she says, the order to suspend a white employee for separate acts of discrimination, tells the Washington Post. Shannon Phillips refuses.
A month later, when Starbucks decides to leave its restrooms open to all and simultaneously closes 8,000 of its stores across the United States to hold an unprecedented day of racial bias training, the regional manager is fired, on the grounds that “the situation is not recoverable”.
Shannon Phillips claims, for her part, that her ousting was motivated by her refusal to fire this white employee. In October 2019, she sued Starbucks, arguing that the chain would have ousted her to show its good reaction to this new case of discrimination. A federal court in New Jersey found on June 12 that Shannon Phillips was fired because of her skin color, and therefore ordered Starbucks to pay her $25 million (23 million euros) in damages and damages. interests.
