Starbucks apologizes for expelling an African American customer in California

Others Customers, who were not African American, entered the store afterwards and were not asked to leave , reported ABC7 News. Ward, a San Francisco barber, said the incident occurred on 15 March and that thinks he was asked to leave the store because he is black.

“I was the only one black that was there. I don’t know what was going through her mind, ”Ward told ABC7 News, referring to the manager.

Ward further detailed his experience at the San Jose Starbucks in an extensive Instagram video.

Ward said a cashier asked him to wait outside for his order, but two women left the store before he could leave. With the departure of the women, Ward said that Starbucks did not have as many customers and that their presence exceeded the store’s capacity limit. . But still, the manager was still yelling at him to get out of the store.

“I’m not saying he chased me because I’m black, I’m just stating the facts”, Ward said, adding that he demanded a refund. “This is Starbucks. You are supposed to be proud of how you treat your customers. ”

ABC7 News asked Starbucks for feedback and received the following statement:

“We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind in our stores and we never want a customer to feel discriminated against. We apologize to Mr. Ward for his experience and have trained staff on how to respectfully navigate capacity limits to protect health and safety. of partners and customers. ”

A Starbucks spokesperson also told ABC7 News that “the company has no available videos of the incident” despite having security cameras in the store.

“How convenient that the key piece of evidence that would corroborate what happened here, and would likely become a viral video once posted, it seems no one can find her, ” Adante Pointer, an Oakland-based civil rights attorney, told ABC7 News.