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AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

Two Starbucks locations on campus close for anti-bias training Tuesday

Updated: May 29, 2018 at 3:25 p.m.

Employees at 8,000 Starbucks locations will go through training designed to help them understand racial biases and inclusion Tuesday afternoon.

Two locations on campus, at Gelman Library and on E Street, will close at 2:30 p.m. for anti-bias training, according to the company’s website. The Starbucks located in GW Hospital will remain open for regular hours.

The company announced the training last month following an incident at a location in Philadelphia, in which a store manager called the police on two black men in the store who didn’t purchase anything. The episode, which garnered more than 11 million views on Twitter, sparked protests and calls for the manager to be fired.

Police arrested the men for trespassing, but later apologized and the men decided not to pursue a lawsuit against the city, according to the Washington Post.

Curriculum for the training was developed by civil rights experts like Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Heather McGhee, president of professional training company Demos, according to a press release.

During the training, employees will watch videos that discuss bias and share personal experiences of how they have experienced bias in their personal lives, according to a video preview posted last week.

“Discussing racism and discrimination is not easy, and various people have helped us create a learning experience that we hope will be educational, participatory and make us a better company,” Executive Chairman Howard Schultz said in a statement Tuesday.

Locations will resume normal operating hours Wednesday.

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