Giving Compass' Take:

• Business Insider reports on California coffee chain Red Bay, which has created a culture of addressing racial issues by hiring more people of color in high-level positions.

• How can the for-profit and nonprofit world learn from the example set by Red Bay? Are we doing enough to make management more diverse?

Starbucks' racial bias training: when it really works.


In recent months, Starbucks has been dealing with a public-relations headache that threatens to damage its reputation.

In April, a white store manager called the police on two black men in Philadelphia after one of the men asked to use the restroom. Footage of the arrest went viral, and other customers proceeded to share similar experiences of racism using the hashtag #Starbuckswhileblack. A month later, the company came under fire again, when a barista in California wrote "beaner"— a derogatory term for Mexicans — on a Latino customer's coffee cup. And in late 2017, an Asian customer said a barista wrote "ching" on his cup instead of his name.

On the afternoon of May 29, Starbucks will attempt to address racial bias by holding trainings in 800 stores across the US.

While Starbucks struggles with racial bias, another coffee chain [California's Red Bay] says it has found two strategies for curbing racism in its stores: hiring more people of color as managers and creating a culture of openly discussing racial issues.

Read the full article about how corporations can address racial bias by Leanna Garfield at Business Insider.