What e-mails from hotels reveal about racial discrimination

New: Gift this subscriber-only story to your friends and family

On May 29, Starbucks will close in 8,000 locations to administer racial bias training for 175,000 of its employees. The move is a response to national outrage in the United States over the arrest of two black patrons while they were simply waiting for a meeting to begin at one of its coffee shops in Philadelphia.

But racial bias training for employees is not enough to address the epidemic of discrimination by US companies. Over the past two years, we have investigated discrimination in customer service by conducting large-scale field experiments in the hospitality industry. We have repeatedly found that front-line workers exhibit racial bias in the quality of customer service they provide.

Already a subscriber? 

Read the full story and more at $9.90/month

Get exclusive reports and insights with more than 500 subscriber-only articles every month

Unlock these benefits

  • All subscriber-only content on ST app and straitstimes.com

  • Easy access any time via ST app on 1 mobile device

  • E-paper with 2-week archive so you won't miss out on content that matters to you

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on April 22, 2018, with the headline What e-mails from hotels reveal about racial discrimination. Subscribe