Backlash over ADL's participation in Starbucks anti-bias training

Byby Melanie Woodrow KGO logo
Friday, April 20, 2018
Backlash over ADL's participation in Starbucks anti-bias training
Women's March leader Tamika Mallory is calling for a boycott of Starbucks tweeting Starbucks was on a decent track until they enlisted the Anti Defamation League to build their anti-bias training.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Women's March leader Tamika Mallory is calling for a boycott of Starbucks tweeting Starbucks was on a decent track until they enlisted the Anti Defamation League to build their anti-bias training.

This following the arrest of two black men at a Philadelphia Starbucks.

Cat Brooks, Co-Founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project says she agrees with Mallory.

ABC NEWS EXCLUSIVE: Men arrested at Starbucks were there for 'meeting to change our lives'

"You can't be a piece of an anti-bias training when you openly support a racist, oppressive and brutal colonization of Palestine," said Brooks.

Wednesday the ADL tweeted, "Starbucks' anti-bias training is a crucial next step and we're proud to be able to contribute ..."

"It really negates this whole effort by Starbucks," said Brooks.

The ADL is one of several organizations participating.

"The ADL is really one of the centrist historic legacy organizations like the NAACP," said Rabbi Jason Rodich of Congregation Emanu-El.

Rabbi Jason Rodich says he supports multiple organizations coming together including the ADL.

RELATED: Starbucks CEO orders 'unconscious bias' training after 'reprehensible' arrest, manager out

"Look I don't agree with everything the ADL stands for, I sometimes have different views, but I really believe if we are going to solve this tremendous problem affecting people of color in our country that we have to be a broad coalition and be willing to work together across some differences," said Rodich.

"I'm going to do everything I can to ensure it is fixed and never happens again," said Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson.

As Starbucks seeks to address implicit bias, new debate about the training itself more than a month before it's set to take place.

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