Judge orders Starbucks to pay additional $2.7 million to manager who said she was ‘fired for being white’

A Pennsylvania federal judge has ordered Starbucks to pay a former manager an additional $2.7 million in damages after a jury agreed with her claim that she was wrongly fired for being white. The Philadelphia woman was fired after a 2018 incident where the coffee chain was accused of racism after calling the police on two black men.

From The Atlanta Black Star:

Former Starbucks regional manager Shannon Phillips claims she became a scapegoat in the wake of the controversy in April 2018 when police arrested two Black men in a Rittenhouse Square Starbucks in Philadelphia because they refused to leave the store after being told they could not sit inside without buying anything. A cellphone video of the arrests went viral, leading to a national backlash against the coffee store chain.

The two arrested men, young entrepreneurs Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson (23 at the time), were released from custody and reached an agreement with the state of Philadelphia, granted $200,000 to help them in their business venture.

Phillips was fired from Starbucks in what she felt was nothing more than a scapegoat tactic to allow Starbucks to appear as if things were being done about the situation. She believed that as regional manager, she had nothing to do with the arrests of the Black men at the 18th and Spruce Street store.

Read the full article over at The Atlanta Black Star.

Image via Flickr

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.