Two black men arrested at Starbucks speak out after apology from police; racial profiling storms back into US headlines

Rashon Nelson initially brushed it off when the Starbucks manager told him he couldn’t use the restroom because he wasn’t a paying customer. He thought nothing of it when he and his business partner, Donte Robinson, were approached at their table and were asked if they needed help. The 23-year-old entrepreneurs declined, explaining they were just waiting for a business meeting. [caption id=“attachment_4438923” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The two African American men led away by Philadelphia police from a local Starbucks. AP[/caption] A few minutes later, they hardly noticed when the police walked into the coffee shop — until officers started walking in their direction. “That’s when we knew she called the police on us,” Nelson told The Associated Press in the first interview by the two black men since video of their trespassing arrests April 12 touched off a furore around the U.S. over racial profiling, or what has been dubbed “retail racism” or “shopping while black.” Nelson and Robinson, best friends since the fourth grade, were led away in handcuffs from the coffee shop in the city’s well-to-do Rittenhouse Square neighborhood, in an incident recorded on a white customer’s cellphone.

On 5/29, we'll close US company-owned stores to conduct racial-bias training to address implicit bias & prevent discrimination. We're taking a hard look at who we are as a company. We’re ashamed & recognize that racial bias is a problem we must address. https://t.co/xIYc75BJPj

— Starbucks (@Starbucks) April 17, 2018

In the week since their arrests, the men have met with Starbucks’ apologetic CEO and have started pushing for lasting change. “We do want to make sure it doesn’t happen to anybody again,” Robinson said. “What if it wasn’t us sitting there? What if it was the kid that didn’t know somebody that knew somebody? Do they make it to jail? Do they die? What happens?” On Thursday, they also got an apology from Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross, a black man who at first staunchly defended his officers’ handling of the incident. Ross said he “failed miserably” in addressing the arrests. He said that the issue of race is not lost on him and that he shouldn’t be the person making things worse. He said the police department did not have a policy for dealing for similar situations, but does now, and it will be released soon. Nelson and Robinson said they went to the Starbucks to meet Andrew Yaffe, a white local businessman, over a potential real estate opportunity. Three police officers showed up not long after. Nelson said they weren’t questioned but were told to leave immediately. Yaffe showed up as the men were being handcuffed and could be seen in the video demanding an explanation for the officers’ actions. Nelson and Robinson did not resist arrest. “When you know that you did nothing wrong, how do you really react to it?” Nelson said. “You can either be ignorant or you can show some type of sophistication and act like you have class. That was the choice we had.” It was hardly their first encounter with police. But neither had been arrested before, setting them apart from many of those they grew up with in their gritty southwest Philadelphia neighborhood. Robinson said he briefly wondered what he might have done to bring the moment on himself. “I feel like I fell short,” he explained. “I’m trying to think of something I did wrong, to put not just me but my brother, my lifelong friend … in this situation.” Nelson and Robinson spent hours in a jail cell and were released after midnight, when the district attorney declined to prosecute them for trespassing. Nelson said he wondered if he’d make it home alive. “Any time I’m encountered by cops, I can honestly say it’s a thought that runs through my mind,” Nelson said. “You never know what’s going to happen.” The men’s attorney, Stewart Cohen, said they were illegally profiled. Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney, who is white, has said what happened at the Starbucks “appears to exemplify what racial discrimination looks like in 2018.” But Ross, the police commissioner, initially said the arresting officers were just doing their job, acted professionally and “did absolutely nothing wrong,” and added that Nelson and Robinson were disrespectful to them. The arrests prompted protests at the Starbucks and a national boycott. Kevin Johnson, CEO at Seattle-based Starbucks, came to Philadelphia to meet with the men. He called the arrests “reprehensible” and has ordered more than 8,000 of the company’s stores closed May 29 for training for nearly 175,000 employees on unconscious bias. Robinson said that he appreciates the public support the men have received but that anger and boycotting Starbucks are not the solution. The men said they are looking for more lasting results and are in mediation with Starbucks to make changes, including the posting in stores of a customer bill of rights; the adoption of new policies regarding customer ejections, racial profiling and racial discrimination; and independent investigations of complaints of discrimination. “You go from being someone who’s just trying to be an entrepreneur, having your own dreams and aspirations, and then this happens,” Nelson said. “How do you handle it? Do you stand up? Do you fight? Do you sit down and just watch everyone else fight for you? Do you let it slide, like we let everything else slide with injustice?”