Former manager awarded $25M after having 2 African American men wrongfully arrested at Starbucks.

A former regional manager of a Philadelphia Starbucks has been awarded $25 million following a lawsuit against the coffee corporation in which she alleged that she was fired because she was white. This news comes five years after the arrest of two Black men at the Rittenhouse Square Neighborhood Starbucks.

The incident, which was recorded and posted online accumulating millions of views, sparked national outrage and boycotts. Starbucks Chief Executive, Kevin R. Johnson, issued a public apology and condemned the employee’s actions on Starbucks’ official site. The corporation shut down 8,000 Starbucks locations to teach employees about racial bias, and the regional manager of the shop, Shannon Phillips, was subsequently terminated from her position.

Phillips filed a lawsuit against her former employer, claiming that she had been fired on account of her race and suffered loss of earning capacity, benefits, “pain and suffering, embarrassment, humiliation, loss of self-esteem, mental anguish, and loss of life’s pleasures”.

In her lawsuit, Phillips stated that Starbucks tried to “punish white employees who had not been involved in the arrests, but who worked in and around the city of Philadelphia, in an effort to convince the community that it had properly responded to the incident”. The suit also alleges that Starbucks did not take action against the store’s Black regional manager, who is being accused of promoting the employee who did contact the police during the incident.

Phillips denied any involvement in the two men’s arrests and claims that she was fired for opposing placing the white district manager at the 18th and Spruce Streets store on administrative leave. Additionally, Phillips asserted that her performance had been more than good, having received a bonus just one month before she was excused from her role. She also claims that she was set to be promoted before the arrests took place.

After five years since the incident, Phillips has been awarded $25 million in compensation for her lawsuit. The incident has demonstrated the importance of racial bias education and the need to hold corporations accountable for their actions.

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