Abstract
In April of 2016, two black men were sitting in a Starbucks store (Gayle, 2018) when an employee claimed they had to leave since they had not made a purchase. The two men refused to leave the store, which prompted the Starbucks barista to call the Philadelphia Police, claiming that the two men were trespassing. A viral video showed the two men being arrested and caused a public out roar. After the public started several protests at multiple Starbucks locations, the chain decided to take serious action and closed over 8,000 stores for a day to run a racial bias training for their employees on May 29, 2018 (Rusche, 2018).
Faculty Advisor
Dr. Klive Oh
Recommended Citation
Avila, Monica; Parkin, Hannah; and Galoostian, Sabrina
(2019)
"$16.7 Million To Save One Reputation: How Starbucks Responded Amidst a Racial Sensitivity Crisis,"
Pepperdine Journal of Communication Research: Vol. 7, Article 4.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/pjcr/vol7/iss1/4
