'Anti-Black' ADL Given Lesser Role In Starbucks Diversity Training After Backlash

The Anti-Defamation League is no longer taking a leading role in next month’s diversity training at Starbucks stores across the United States, serving instead in an consulting role.

Initially, the group’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, was one of four civil rights leaders tapped to develop the coffee giant’s all-day anti-bias training next month across its 8,000 U.S. locations...

But Starbucks announced in a Wednesday press release that the ADL will now be one of "a diverse array of organizations and civil rights experts" that Starbucks will consult. Other groups in the consulting role include those combating anti-Muslim, anti-LGBT and anti-Latino bigotry.

[...]Greenblatt’s original role was criticized by left wing activists who objected to, among other things, ADL’s work with police departments and its support of Israel. One of the most prominent critics was Tamika Mallory, one of the leaders of the Women’s March, whom the ADL has criticized for supporting Louis Farrakhan, a virulent anti-Semite.

#Starbucks is NOT serious about doing right by BLACK people! #boycottstarbucks pic.twitter.com/cjpDAXesCC

— Tamika D. Mallory (@TamikaDMallory) April 17, 2018

One of the groups that had protested the ADL’s role was Jewish Voice for Peace, which advocates for a boycott of Israel. JVP, which has campaigned against an ADL program that brings American police officers to Israel for counter-terrorism training, praised Starbucks in a press release.

“The demotion of the ADL from a leadership role is a clear reflection of the recognition by a wide variety of social justice organizations and individuals that the ADL’s status as a civil rights organization is compromised given its history and practices of anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian, and anti-Black racism,” Rebecca Vilkomerson, JVP’s executive director, said in the press release.