Just days after a representative for Starbucks denounced claims that Pride Month decorations were banned from cafes, the coffee shop has found itself in the midst of even more controversy. This time around, Starbucks has been thrust into the spotlight due to a costly lawsuit that resulted from an incident that occurred at a Philadelphia store several years ago.
Back in April 2018, two Black men were arrested at the Starbucks location for merely sitting in the shop. The arrests took place after a manager at the coffee shop called police and informed them that the two men, Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, refused to make a purchase or leave the premises.
Both Nelson and Robinson were awarded an undisclosed amount as part of a settlement with Starbucks, and now the company has had to dish out even more cash because of the incident, but this time to a former manager.
In the wake of the high-profile incident involving the two men, NPR reports that Shannon Phillips, the then Starbucks manager of operations for several cities, claimed she was ordered to put a white manager who was not involved in the arrests on administrative leave. Within weeks of the order, Phillips was fired from her position after criticizing the employee's forced leave.
As a result of her termination, Phillips filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against Starbucks. In her lawsuit, she claimed that they sought to "punish white employees" in the area the arrests took place "to convince the community that it had properly responded to the incident."
On Monday, it was announced that Phillips had in fact won her lawsuit against Starbucks and was awarded $600,000 in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages. Not only that, she also plans to seek nearly $3 million for lost pay and $1 million on her fee application.
