(CNN) Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz faced a swift backlash on Tuesday night when he said, in response to a question about race during a CNN town hall, that he doesn't "see color."

But his answer is also at odds with a series of 2018 videos produced as part of his own company's anti-bias training initiative. In the clips, the idea that anyone can move through life blind to race is rejected and, in one video featuring the company's new CEO, Kevin Johnson, mocked and dismissed. Schultz was the Starbucks chairman at the time.

"Growing up, this term called 'color blind' described a learning behavior of pretending not to notice race. That doesn't even make sense," Johnson says. "So today we are starting a new journey, talking about race directly -- what my friend and Starbucks board member Mellody Hobson calls being 'color brave.'"

The decision to launch anti-bias training courses followed an embarrassing -- and, for many, deeply disturbing -- incident in April 2018 at a Starbucks in Philadelphia. The store manager called the police on two African-American men, who were arrested while waiting for an acquaintance. The pair have since settled lawsuits with the city, for a symbolic $1 and the promise of an investment in young entrepreneurs, and the company. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, in a statement at the time, said the arrests "exemplify what racial discrimination looks like in 2018."

Schultz on Tuesday described his recollection of the incident, as it was reported to him, and its roots in what he described as the "unconscious bias that many of us have based on our own life experience." It had also, he added, "created a tremendous problem for the company." The result was a decision to shut down 8,000 Starbucks stores nationwide so employees could go through a half-day-long course that asked them to watch a series of video tutorials and take part in personal discussions about racial bias.

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