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On Friday, a Twitter user tweeted at the fast-food chain: “grilled spicy deluxe but still noooo spicy nuggets…………@ChickfilA…..”
In direct response, the official Chick-fil-A Twitter account stated, “Your community will be the first to know if spicy items are added to the permanent menu, Don!”
According to NBC News, while the initial tweet had only six replies, Chick-fil-A’s response got more than 700 replies and 4,300 quote tweets because of its select choice of words. Many Twitter users called out the account’s decision to use the term “your community,” questioning whether it was targeting the user’s identity, who appears to be Black.
It was later noted that previous tweets by Chic-Fil-A mirrored similar language, however, most Twitter users bypassed the fast-food chains previous statements and harped on the seemingly generic response by the chain.
“The response was a poor choice of words but was not intended in any way to be insensitive or disrespectful,” a Chic-Fil-A spokesperson later told NBC News. “We often use the term ‘community’ in a broader sense to talk about places where we operate restaurants and serve the surrounding community.”
Two words like “Your Community” may be a part of a standard response for the chicken chain, however, those same words can also have damning repercussions and though they may not have been intended to be dismissive, insulting, or condescending to our community, intentions are soon thrown out the window at the smallest perception of communal disrespect.
Since 2020, many American companies tout having Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, (DEI) as a core element to their organizational infrastructure, however, what Chic-Fil-A’s latest PR faux pas clearly demonstrates is that having standard language to address the masses does not in actuality consider the masses. A Black person in charge of the Twitter account may have thought twice about it, knowing that words such as “Your Community” sounds a little bit too much like “Your People.”
You have to understand context of any comment. Unfortunately the Internet is quick to speak and slow to understand.