Starbucks does something really good. Too bad it was motivated by something really bad

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The Globe and Mail reports that two black men were taken out of a Starbucks by police officers despite the fact that they were doing nothing wrong. This was initiated by a call to police from the manager. The manager was fired, and rightly so.

To recap, the year is 2018 and the venue is a city which featured prominently in the foundation of a country which now brands itself the world's shining beacon of freedom and equality.

In response, Starbucks has mandated the closure of 8,000 corporately-owned stores in America for an entire afternoon to undergo racial sensitivity training.

Anyone who follows my articles might see this coming, but I am a huge fan of that second piece of news. Also worth commendation: the decision of Starbucks to fire this manager, and the actions of the brave protestors who brought about this change.

Is Starbucks' response enough to end the boycott? That is not the focus or my article nor am I ready to make a prediction. Whether one good act is sufficient to offset a bad one is an inherently subjective question, and for each individual to decide for themself.

This appalling incident should never have happened, and it is a shame indeed that such training often follows such an event, rather than attempting to pre-empt it in the first place. I think any objective person who lives in this world would be forced to agree that more racial sensitivity could only be a good thing. Such is true for other human rights as well, such as gender, age and sexual orientation (to name a few).

But imagine how awesome this news would seem without its dark origins. Why would a large corporation not do this more often? I do not think the goodness of the reaction should be overlooked, much as the triggering event was reprehensible.

To professionals everywhere who read this article I would say you really should consider workplace human rights training. An attempt to make our communities better should not always have to wait until we have already made them worse. But training staff at 8,000 stores and broadcasting it all over the news and social media makes the world a better place than when we all woke up this morning. Please share this article if you agree.