Sherrilyn Ifill and Heather McGhee Respond to Preview of Starbucks’ Anti-Bias Training

NEW YORK, NY – Today, Sherrilyn Ifill of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Heather McGhee of Demos issued the following statement regarding the preview of the Starbucks’ anti-bias training:

We are encouraged by the steps Starbucks has taken in developing an anti-bias training for its 175,000 employees on May 29. Following the racial bias incident in the Philadelphia store, Starbucks invited us, along with Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative, to provide counsel on the design of the training that will launch a longer-term Starbucks’ anti-bias, diversity, and inclusion effort for their employees, leadership, and, ideally, other retail corporations. In the past weeks, we have offered Starbucks guidance on racial bias generally, and in particular anti-Black racism – looking to enhance the company’s view of racism and how to effectively address it. This training is an important first step — a bold step — for corporate America. The preview video released today indicates that Starbucks has taken input from key influencers and their employees on policies and practices that need to change, and that they have taken our advice as they designed the training. We remain optimistic that Starbucks is committing itself to ongoing training and will share its approach to this important issue with other corporate leaders.

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