Back in April 2018 the story of two black men who were arrested in a Philadelphia Starbucks was big news. There were protests outside the store, an apology from the CEO and the company eventually held racial bias training at all of its 8,000 stores.

The manager who called the police on the two men left the company but a few weeks later there was a follow-up story involving a regional manager named Shannon Phillips. Phillips had not been involved in the incident at the Philly store at all. She was a regional manager who managed nine district managers, each of which were responsible for multiple stores.

And this is where things get strange (and a bit complicated). There were two district managers who reported to Phillips from Philadelphia, Ben Trinsey who is white and Paul Sykes, who is black. The store where the incident happened was one of the ones managed by Paul Sykes. In fact, he had promoted the manager who called the police on the two men.

What happened next, according to Phillips’ lawsuit, is that she was called into the office of her boss Camilla Hymes (who is black). Hymes told Phillips she needed to set up a meeting with Ben Trinsey to let him know he was being suspended. Phillips pointed out that Trinsey didn’t manage the store where the incident took place. She was told that Trinsey wasn’t being suspended because of that incident but because he’d been accused of racial discrimination by employees. Specifically, minority employees claimed they were being paid less than white employees.

Phillips pointed out that Trinsey couldn’t possibly be at fault for that because district managers at Starbucks have no control over salaries. Salaries were set by another part of the company. She also pointed out that, based on what she knew of him, Trinsey wouldn’t discriminate against minorities. He was involved with a charity which primarily served black youth.

So, to summarize, Trinsey couldn’t have done what the employees claimed and Sykes, the manager who was in charge of the store where the incident happened, wasn’t being reprimanded at all.

The next day, Phillips was called in to Hymes office again, this time she was told that she was being suspended. Phillips filed a lawsuit claiming she was essentially fired because she was white. Monday a jury agreed and ordered Starbucks to pay Phillips $25 million.

The New Jersey jury returned a verdict of $25.6 million, including $25 million for punitive damages and $600,000 in compensatory damages, according to Console Mattiacci Law, which represents Phillips. The jury ruled unanimously after a six day trial, the lawyers said, noting that Phillips will also be seeking back and front pay…

The 2019 complaint said that following the arrest, Starbucks “took steps to punish White employees who had not been involved in the arrests, but who worked in and around the city of Philadelphia, in an effort to convince the community that it had properly responded to the incident.”

The NY Times has more:

Amid the image-burnishing campaign, Ms. Phillips said one of her superiors, a Black woman, told her to suspend a white manager who oversaw stores in Philadelphia, though not the one in Rittenhouse Square, because of allegations that he had engaged in discriminatory conduct — allegations that Ms. Phillips said she knew to be untrue.

In contrast, Ms. Phillips said, no action was taken against the manager who oversaw the Rittenhouse Square store, a Black man who Ms. Phillips said had promoted the employee who called the police.

Ms. Phillips said she was fired not long after balking at the order to suspend the white manager. She said that she had not been previously told that she was doing a bad job and that the only explanation she was given for the firing was that “the situation is not recoverable.”

The white district manager, Trinsey, who was suspended for discrimination, was also eventually fired. So that’s two white managers with no connection to the actual incident except that they worked in the same general area. Of course, Starbucks claims this wasn’t discrimination they were just disappointed with Phillips’ leadership during the crisis. That would be a lot more convincing if Starbucks’ leadership didn’t amount to throwing white employees to the mob.