‘Ingraham Angle’ Gives Exclusive Look at Starbucks’ Racial ‘Sensitivity Training’

All 8,000 company-owned Starbucks shops across the country closed on Tuesday afternoon so that 175,000 employees could receive “unconscious bias training” — whether they wanted to or not.

Why? After a recent controversial incident in which two black men were arrested as they were waiting for a business meeting inside a Philadelphia Starbucks, the coffee giant decided to implement sensitivity training at its stores — and it’s made quite a to-do about it.

Employees were subjected to sensitivity training using a “notebook” that Fox News host Laura Ingraham held up during “The Ingraham Angle” Tuesday night and discussed with a panel. The program learned of the specifics of the training employees went through and revealed many of the details from this booklet, as shared by a worker who had taken part in the Tuesday training session — a worker who also said some people were laughing during the training.

The notebook given to employees sported such phrases as “racial identity” and “unconscious bias.”

Some “ground rules” articulated in the document included: “Listen respectfully,” “Speak your truth. And honor other people’s truth” — and “If your conversations get off track, pause and restart.”

The notebook also guided employees on how to be “color brave.”

And it put this forward: “What makes me, me? And you, you? Similarities bond us together. YET … being able to perceive what makes us unique — and different from each other — gives us the gift of seeing each other as full human beings.”

The book also said, “The risk is that when we hold negative stereotypes, unconscious bias can arise. When we are under pressure, are short on time or don’t pay attention, unconscious biases are triggered more easily. We can hold biases about race and age and religion. Gender and sexuality and body type. Ability and mental health and class. And many other attributes.”

The notebook encouraged employees to remember when they first discovered their “racial identity.”

It said: “Recall when you first experienced your racial identity … It may have been when you were a child. It may have been last week. If a scenario doesn’t apply to you, feel free to leave it blank and move on to the next one.”

The guidebook encouraged workers to make sure they “noticed how your race affected your beauty standards,” “altered your communication style (dialed it up or down) to avoid playing into stereotypes,” and “went to work with your natural hair without comments or questions from others.”

Some people felt that last remark, in particular, was unfairly directed toward one group of people over another, noted Ingraham.

“People should just be respectful to one another,” no matter where they come from or who they are.

Will all of this training help workers? Will it help customers? That very much remains to be seen.

“People should just be respectful to one another,” no matter where they come from “or who they are,” she said. And “don’t call the cops on people if you can defuse the situation.”

She added, “The poor employees — I feel sorry for them now,” referencing that as a result of what’s happened, people can stroll into a Starbucks shop these days and use the restroom whether they purchase something or not. They can also lounge around for hours on end with their bags, their books, etc. — presumably taking up space that potential customers could be using instead.