8,000 Starbucks Locations Close So Staffers Can Receive Anti-Bias Training

All 8,000 Starbucks locations across America have shut their doors so employees can undergo four hours of intensive anti-bias training. 

The closures came in the wake of a notorious incident in a Philadelphia Starbucks last month, when two young black men were arrested for hanging out, not buying anything, and asking to use the men’s room.

"Racial and systemic bias have many causes, sources and ways of showing up within each of us," is the message of a video played during the training. 

All 175,000 Starbucks employees watched the video and held discussion groups. 

Rapper Common delivered his own video message to all the Starbucks workers

“Helping people see each other fully, completely, respectfully," he said. 

Common spoke to Good Morning America Tuesday ahead of the training. 

“We got to hold Starbucks accountable, our political officials accountable, any businesses we support and we hold ourselves accountable, so that’s why I’m a part of this conversation," he said.  

Starbucks founder Howard Schultz says the training program is just the beginning.

“We're living in a time in America where there is a fracturing of humanity," he recently told CBS News. "And we have an opportunity, given the fact that we have stores in every community in America to begin a very important conversation."

No charges were filed against the two men who were arrested — Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson — and they have been given Starbucks college scholarships and a cash settlement.

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