When white people call the cops on people of color

On May 29 Starbucks closed its stores to hold racial bias training in all of its U.S. locations. The action is in response to an incident where two black men were arrested at a Starbucks while waiting for a business meeting. The manager who called the police was a white woman.

This incident is one in a series of recent episodes of white people calling the cops on people of color who were not committing obvious crimes. MPR News reporter Brandt Williams hosted a conversation about why people of color are so quickly categorized as engaging in "suspicious behavior."

Raj Sethuraju is an assistant professor in the School of Law Enforcement at Metropolitan State University.

Verna Myers, inclusion strategist and cultural innovator, and author of "Moving Diversity Forward: how to go from Well-Meaning to Well-Doing" and "What if I Say the Wrong Thing?"

Use the audio player above to hear the full segment.

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