Chick-fil-A has issued an apology after Tracey Reid, a Black sergeant in the Clover Police Department in South Carolina, was humiliated when he was made to pay for his meal while his white colleagues received theirs for free.
The incident, which Reid believes was racially motivated, occurred a few weeks ago at a Georgia Chick-fil-A branch. Reid told WOSC that he and his colleagues, all in the same uniform, were in line for their orders when the incident took place.
Reid, however, was required to pay for his meal, unlike the others who received theirs for free.
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“I was kind of humiliated and embarrassed, you know, at the whole situation. It seemed like it was a racial issue to me,” he said.
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Kenny Hanna, who owns and operates Chick-fil-A Augusta, told Channel 2 Action News that the incident was an “oversight.”
“We regret the unintentional impact this incident had and sincerely apologize to our guest,” the apology read. “We were deeply concerned by this claim.
“It appears to have been an honest oversight across separate lines and registers. We are strongly committed to supporting our community’s first responders.”
Reid demanded that Chick-fil-A retrain its Augusta employees and strengthen nationwide policies to comply with civil rights laws, conveying this in a letter to the company’s corporate office.
In response, he received an apology along with two free meal cards from Chick-fil-A, which attributed the incident to an unfamiliar register operator.
“It said it was perceived that it was a racial incident, which I didn’t like, because it wasn’t perceived; it actually happened,” Reid said.
His colleague, detective Thomas Barnette, said that Reid was not “the only one that perceived it.”
“We all did, and it’s not perception, it’s what happened. It was a racial issue,” he added.
Despite Barnette’s offer to intervene, Reid declined, stating he did not wish to “cause a scene” while police officers were present in the restaurant.
“But I could tell the way he looked; he just looked at his plate, he looked sad and humiliated, and that made me really mad,” he said.
