Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Paul Sykes

On Sundays I write about someone who has demonstrated fortitude, and is worthy of our admiration. Paul Sykes is such an individual.

Last week, you may have read about a civil lawsuit that was won by the white plaintiff, Shannon Phillips, who claimed that her firing was racially motivated. She was awarded $25 million in punitive damages as well as $600,000 in compensatory damages. The loser in this case was Starbucks. The jury basically agreed that Starbucks fired Ms. Phillips because she was white. (To get further details of this case read my prior blog of 6/16/23.)

From “Coffee and Covid:”

For its part, Starbucks denied the firing was racially motivated, adding insult to the injury by telling the jury Ms. Phillips was just a terrible manager all around, just awful, nobody would want her, and her termination’s timing was pure coincidence.

One of the main witnesses during this trial was Paul Sykes. He was the assistant manager in that Philadelphia Starbucks, and it was an un-named employee under his supervision who called 911 concerning the two suspicious black men who appeared to just be loitering in the store.

At the trial, the courageous Assistant Manager Sykes testified on Ms. Phillips’ behalf, telling the jury her firing had been racially motivated. He testified that, even though he supervised the employee who called 911, and even though Ms. Phillips never even knew about it, Mr. Sykes himself wasn’t disciplined at all.

Okay, so Paul Sykes testified at a trial. That, in and of itself, doesn’t make Paul Sykes someone we should admire.

However, the rest of the story is … Paul Sykes is black!

6/25/23

californiacontrarian

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