Former Employee At The Controversial Philly Starbucks Says The Manager Was Racist

Starbucks will close 8,000 stores across the country May 29 in order to have employees undergo “racial bias training.”

“I’ve spent the last few days in Philadelphia with my leadership team listening to the community, learning what we did wrong and the steps we need to take to fix it,” said Starbucks ceo Kevin Johnson. “While this is not limited to Starbucks, we’re committed to being a part of the solution. Closing our stores for racial bias training is just one step in a journey that requires dedication from every level of our company and partnerships in our local communities.”

All Starbucks company-owned retail stores and corporate offices will be closed in the afternoon of Tuesday, May 29. During that time, partners will go through a training program designed to address implicit bias, promote conscious inclusion, prevent discrimination and ensure everyone inside a Starbucks store feels safe and welcome.

“The company’s founding values are based on humanity and inclusion,” said executive chairman Howard Schultz, who joined Johnson and other senior Starbucks leaders in Philadelphia to meet with community leaders and Starbucks partners. “We will learn from our mistakes and reaffirm our commitment to creating a safe and welcoming environment for every customer.”

The curriculum will be developed with guidance from several national and local experts confronting racial bias, including Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative; Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund; Heather McGhee, president of Demos; former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder; and Jonathan Greenblatt, ceo of the Anti-Defamation League. Starbucks will involve these experts in monitoring and reviewing the effectiveness of the measures we undertake.

I think it’s kind of ridiculous. I really don’t see this as a widespread issue. I this was a very rare case of employees at that particular Starbucks overreacting, and that’s it. Starbucks isn’t a racist company. If you actually believe that, I’m sorry. You’re kinda ridiculous.

A former supervisor of that particular Starbucks is now speaking out. She says the manager who called the cops on the two black men that day is a major jerk who’s actually kinda racist in IRL.

A former Starbucks supervisor says the manager who called police on two black men was a controlling boss racist towards both customers and employees.

Ieshaa Cash claimed she was demoted and her pay cut without reason after Holly Hylton took over the Philadelphia Center City store last year.

The 41-year-old said Hylton, 31, was ‘uncomfortable’ around non-white customers and often targeted them for removal from the store.

Wow. She sounds like a real gem. //sarc

It sounds like everyone hated her, and rightly so.

Staff said their new boss was ‘controlling, aggressive, and emotional’ but Cash said special disdain was reserved for her.

‘Holly always looked for things to complain about and was constantly nitpicking about minor things. I could never do anything right to her,’ she said.

‘One time I ordered an extra sleeve of cups and she went off and gave me a written warning even though we would use them anyway.’

Cash said she was the only black employee at the store besides an assistant manager who was too senior for her boss to ‘mess with’, and worked opposite shifts to Hylton.

With winter approaching and her patience wearing thin, the mother-of-three decided to transfer to a store closer to home last fall.

She cleared it with the other store and then spoke to her boss, who initially seemed happy to facilitate the move.

However, she said the next day Hylton summoned her to a meeting where she said she was ‘ not comfortable’ with Cash remaining a supervisor.

Instead she would be demoted to a standard barista with a corresponding pay cut and shipped off to a completely different store.

When Cash asked for an explanation she was simply told: ‘That’s the way I feel.’ She said a further explanation was never provided to her.

‘I’ve never been in trouble or disciplined and all the regular customers loved me,’ Cash said.

‘I think it’s because she’s racist, she was trying to push me other because she uncomfortable with a black person being there.’

She also said Hylton spent more time making sure white customers were satisfied. She said Hylton acted “cold and standoffish” with everyone else.

People of all races would frequently come into the store to take advantage of the free wifi, but Cash said her manager often let whites slide.

‘She always found a reason to kick black people out, she was way more likely to ask them to leave over white people who hadn’t made a purchase,’ she said.

‘Baristas were usually told to ask them to leave because Holly was so uncomfortable confronting them.’

Cash claimed Hylton called the police on several people during her time there, and they were always black.

If that’s all true and she acted that horrific all the time, why did no one say anything before? Surely, there was an instance where someone could’ve said something before, right?

“Holly was always very careful with what she said, but you could see her racism from the way she acted around people of color,” Cash added.

However, Hylton is attributing her actions to “a corporate policy at Center City Philadelphia locations which prohibits excessive loitering in their stores.”

She told the news outlet management has the discretion to ensure the policy is enforced – even if that means calling in the cops.

She also revealed that she doesn’t even tell the customers when she’s calling the police.

Hylton reportedly refused to say whether it was normal practice for managers or employees to call the police when they found customers loitering.

A representative for Starbucks said on Monday that she had left the coffee chain ‘while there is an internal review pending.’

If what Cash says is true, then yeah– this manager is horrific. It sucks that Starbucks employees across the nation have to be punished for her actions.

h/t Daily Mail