Chick-fil-A is apologizing after a Black police officer in South Carolina was pressured to pay for his meals whereas his white colleagues ate without spending a dime.
Tracy Reid, a police officer in Clover, South Carolina, mentioned the incident, which occurred throughout a go to to a Georgia location a number of weeks in the past, left him feeling “humiliated” and “embarrassed.”
“I used to be sort of humiliated and embarrassed, you recognize, on the complete scenario. It appeared prefer it was a racial concern to me,” Reid informed WSOC.
In line with Reid, he was touring for work with colleagues after they stopped right into a Chick-fil-A in Augusta for breakfast. Nonetheless, after Reid’s colleagues—who had been all white—obtained their meals without spending a dime as a part of a promotion the fast-food chain provides to regulation enforcement, he was charged for his.
“We got here in collectively, similar uniform, stood in line, there was by no means a time we weren’t collectively whereas standing in line,” Reid defined.
Moderately than react within the second, Reid selected to remain calm and even declined when his colleagues provided to talk up on his behalf. Afterward, he wrote a letter to Chick-fil-A’s company workplace detailing what occurred. The corporate later issued an apology, calling the scenario an “oversight.”
“We remorse the unintentional impression this incident had and sincerely apologize to our visitor,” the corporate mentioned in an announcement, per WSB-TV. “We had been deeply involved by this declare. It seems to have been an trustworthy oversight throughout separate traces and registers. We’re strongly dedicated to supporting our group’s first responders.”
Reid, nevertheless, disagreed with the corporate’s characterization of the incident as a “perceived” racial concern.
“It mentioned it was perceived that it was a racial incident, which I didn’t like, as a result of it wasn’t perceived; it truly occurred,” he mentioned.
His colleague Detective Thomas Barnette, who witnessed the change, echoed that sentiment.
“He’s not the one one which perceived it. All of us did, and it’s not notion—it’s what occurred. It was a racial concern.”
