On Monday, a federal jury in New Jersey awarded former Starbucks regional manager Shannon Phillips a whopping $25.6 million in punitive damages and $600,000 in compensatory damages, finding the coffee giant fired her in 2018 due to her race.
Phillips had been in charge of 100 stores in the Mid-Atlantic region, having been promoted from district manager in Ohio in 2011 with a note of "exemplary performance." But in 2018, protests were started by an incident at one of her stores in Philly when employees refused to let two men, who happened to be black, use the restroom without paying for food (this is a major problem for stores in urban areas right now). When the men repeatedly refused to leave, the employees called the police.
The video of the men's arrest caused protests across the nation and prompted Starbucks to require 175,000 employees at 8,000 locations to undergo "sensitivity training."
Weeks after the incident, Phillips claimed that Starbucks started punishing white employees to show the public they were handling the situation, even if the employees had nothing to do with the Philadelphia store's controversy.
In the weeks following the incident, Phillips said her superiors became laser-focused on disciplining white managers and employees while letting black staff get a pass. In one case, Phillips was ordered by her superior, a black woman, to suspend a white manager in her region named Benjamin Trinsey after several employees claimed he paid non-white employees less money. Phillips argued that Trinsey was not racist and did not have the power to control the paychecks being cut by corporate.
At the same time, complaints had also been filed against Paul Sykes, a black manager in her region, but Starbucks reportedly took no action in that case.
Phillips complied with the order to suspend Trinsey, but was herself fired two days later.
In a twist, Sykes testified in court that he had overheard conversations that Starbucks felt the need to send a "strong message" after the Philly incident and that he believed her skin color was a main factor in her firing.
Today, Starbucks is $25 million poorer because of its woke, aNti-RaciSt policies.
The Post Millennial also includes this savage tidbit:
The coffee giant tried to claim that Phillips had been fired for being an ineffective regional manager, but they failed to convince even a single member of the jury.
That's right. Not a single member of that jury believed Starbucks' claims. The vote was unanimous.
Phillips is still seeking additional compensation for lost wages.
