Starbucks To Pay $25 Million To Former Manager After She Was Terminated Because Of Race

Starbucks will have to pay an ex-manager $25.6 million after a jury found that she was terminated because she was White.

The ex-regional manager of several Starbucks coffee shops, Sharon Phillips,  was terminated after the 2018 occurrence at a Starbucks in the Rittenhouse Square community of Philadelphia.

The incident was in regards to two Black men who had been about to meet someone for a business discussion at the coffee shop. That’s when one of the men, Rashon Nelson, wasn’t allowed to use the restroom because he hadn’t bought anything.

Nelson and the other man, Donte Robinson, were then asked by a Starbucks worker if they needed assistance. After saying no, eventually employees called authorities, and the men were led out of the Starbucks in handcuffs.

The apprehensions were captured on a recording and led to protests. Following that, Starbucks shut down all of its locations in order to implement anti-bias training for employees.

In 2019, Phillips filed a lawsuit against Starbucks. This came after she was terminated, but the Black manager at the Rittenhouse store was not. Phillips had stated that she was racially discriminated against because the company needed a “scapegoat” to fire to prove that they were attempting to resolve the matter involving the two Black men.

A jury agreed with Phillips, on Monday, and she was awarded $600,000 for compensatory damages and $25 million for punitive damages.