• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch

2

Mark Zuckerberg feeds his cows macadamia nuts and beer to create the 'highest-quality beef in the world' on his $300 million estate in Hawaii

3

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year

1

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch

2

Mark Zuckerberg feeds his cows macadamia nuts and beer to create the 'highest-quality beef in the world' on his $300 million estate in Hawaii

3

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
Leadership

Starbucks Is Closing Today For Its Company-Wide Unconscious Bias Training: Here’s What You Need To Know

By
David Meyer
David Meyer
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
David Meyer
David Meyer
Down Arrow Button Icon
May 29, 2018, 4:42 AM ET
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

A Starbucks near you may be closed this afternoon, after about 2 p.m. or 3 p.m. local time. That’s because staff in all the outlets that the company owns in the U.S.—more than 8,000 in total—are undergoing racial-bias training.

Here’s what you need to know about that.

What brought this on?

Last month, two men—Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson—sat down in a Philadelphia Starbucks. One of them asked to go to the bathroom but was denied access. A few minutes later, the store manager called the cops on them and they were taken out in handcuffs.

Why? The ostensible justification was that Robinson and Nelson hadn’t ordered anything. But they said they were waiting for someone else to show up for a business meeting, and it was not hard to see the real issue: they were black.

Starbucks ended up apologizing profusely, and the manager left the store. The company settled with Robinson and Nelson for an undisclosed amount, plus free tuition at Arizona State University. There were nationwide protests and boycotts, and the city of Philadelphia also ended up settling with the men—the two got a symbolic $1 each, plus a promise of a $200,000 education program for young entrepreneurs.

And the training?

Starbucks’s apology came with a commitment to “making it right,” executive chairman Howard Shultz said after the incident. That’s where the bias training comes in.

Taking in around 175,000 staffers, the session will involve videos featuring the rapper Common, who was big in the social-consciousness hip-hop scene that began in the late 1990s. Starbucks’s workers will be taught about the history of the civil rights movement, and break off into small groups to figure out how bias might manifest in their behavior.

The program has been developed in conjunction with representatives of the Equal Justice Initiative, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Demos and the Anti-Defamation League, as well as former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and a consultancy called the Perception Institute.

Does unconscious training work?

Perception executive director Alexis McGill Johnson told Associated Press that the aim of anti-bias training is not to “say you’re a bad person because you have a stereotype about a group, but say this is why your brain may have these stereotypes.”

However, psychology professor Calvin Lai, of Washington University in St Louis, told AP that diversity training can sometimes “backfire and lead people who are kind of already reactive to these issues to become even more polarized.” He also pointed out that, with such a large company, and with so many employees who may be replaced within the next couple of years, one afternoon won’t be “moving the needle” on these issues.

That’s a common warning. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s Sherrilyn Ifill, who is one of Starbucks’s advisors on its anti-bias training material, has previously noted that “this can’t be a one-off.”

And some are even more skeptical. “It doesn’t really seem to do much good on average for companies to offer diversity training because they say you can’t really change people’s inherent biases with a training session,” Harvard sociology professor Frank Dobbin told TIME.

An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to the NAACP rather than the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

About the Author
By David Meyer
LinkedIn icon
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Leadership

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Leadership

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent
EconomyDebt
AI’s $2.2 trillion deficit fix is already half fake, economists say
By Tristan BoveJuly 2, 2026
10 hours ago
Mark Zuckerberg, wearing a white shirt, smiles. He is standing in front of a crowd.
SuccessMark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg feeds his cows macadamia nuts and beer to create the ‘highest-quality beef in the world’ on his $300 million estate in Hawaii
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 2, 2026
12 hours ago
Chris Hulatt co-founder of Octopus Group
SuccessHow I made my first million
A 2-year taste of the office was enough to make 3 grads quit. Now they run a $13.2 billion investment firm: ‘We didn’t want a traditional job again’
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJuly 2, 2026
12 hours ago
Woman taking photo in scenic landscape
Successlifestyle
Americans are escaping the U.S. for New Zealand where house prices have hit a new low—but only wealthy Americans with $3 million spare can invest
By Emma BurleighJuly 2, 2026
14 hours ago
Jason Lemkin
Successwork-life balance
This investor won’t back startups unless staff are in the office 6 days a week: ‘Not because I don’t have empathy, because they’re going to fail’
By Preston ForeJuly 2, 2026
14 hours ago
The true cost of Donald Trump’s $2.2 billion year
NewslettersCEO Daily
The true cost of Donald Trump’s $2.2 billion year
By Diane BradyJuly 2, 2026
19 hours ago

Most Popular

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch
Big Tech
As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJuly 1, 2026
2 days ago
Mark Zuckerberg feeds his cows macadamia nuts and beer to create the 'highest-quality beef in the world' on his $300 million estate in Hawaii
Success
Mark Zuckerberg feeds his cows macadamia nuts and beer to create the 'highest-quality beef in the world' on his $300 million estate in Hawaii
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 2, 2026
12 hours ago
MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
Success
MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
By Sydney LakeJune 25, 2026
8 days ago
Today, Emily Blunt is worth $80 million thanks to her Hollywood career—but she actually wanted to be a UN Spanish translator on $80K
Success
Today, Emily Blunt is worth $80 million thanks to her Hollywood career—but she actually wanted to be a UN Spanish translator on $80K
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJuly 2, 2026
22 hours ago
Americans are escaping the U.S. for New Zealand where house prices have hit a new low—but only wealthy Americans with $3 million spare can invest
Success
Americans are escaping the U.S. for New Zealand where house prices have hit a new low—but only wealthy Americans with $3 million spare can invest
By Emma BurleighJuly 2, 2026
14 hours ago
Current price of oil as of July 2, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of July 2, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 2, 2026
15 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.