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Chick-fil-A Faces Growing Backlash Over 'Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion' Efforts
Epoch Times ^ | 05/31/2023 | Jack Phillips

Posted on 05/31/2023 9:24:44 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Some conservatives have suggested a boycott of Chick-fil-A after the fast-food chain was discovered to have a vice president of “diversity, equity, [and] inclusion,” or DEI.

In a previously issued Chick-fil-A news release, the company said that Erick McReynolds serves as its vice president of DEI, saying: “Chick-fil-A restaurants have long been recognized as a place where people know they will be treated well. Modeling care for others starts in the restaurant, and we are committed to ensuring mutual respect, understanding, and dignity everywhere we do business.”

DEI is a set of principles that large corporations, government agencies, and schools have increasingly incorporated into their work environments, often mandating employees receive such training. However, these principles are rooted in Marxism, according to prominent critics including Christopher Rufo and James Lindsay, that are essentially vehicles for “left-wing racialist ideology and partisan political activism.”

They are designed to replace the system of academic merit with a system of race-based preferences and discrimination—which, in many cases, explicitly violates federal civil rights law,” wrote Rufo for his Substack page earlier this year.

The Chick-fil-A announcement was highlighted this week by several prominent conservative accounts. According to McReynolds’s LinkedIn page, he was hired as Chick-fil-A’s vice president for “Diversity, Equity [and] Inclusion” in late 2021.

“We have a problem,” wrote Joey Mannarino, a conservative host in highlighting Chick-fil-A’s prior announcement, on Twitter Tuesday morning. “Chick-Fil-A just hired a VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. This is bad. Very bad. I don’t want to have to boycott. Are we going to have to boycott?”

He also wrote: “The Left is going crazy again over the Chick-fil-A boycott that conservatives are considering. They’re mad because we’ve FINALLY gotten effective at boycotts. Any company that is pushing the trans stuff on our kids or the DEI stuff, we are going to pick the worst offenders.”

So Chick-fil-A has a diversity, equity and inclusion division,” added columnist Todd Starnes on Tuesday. “Well, that explains the fried cauliflower sandwiches and kale salad.”

By Tuesday afternoon, Lindsay wrote on Twitter that he agreed with the boycott calls and made demands. “We must demand that Chick-fil-A fire their entire ESG and Sustainability staff and partners (including DEI), referring to the left-wing environmental, social, and governance framework.

Ideally we get them to confess how they got caught up in the racket, and then we return support,” he added. “Conservatives might actually be able to pull this one off.”

The chicken-based fast-food chain has been generally well respected among conservatives due to the company’s religious values and its prior support for religious groups. In the McReynolds DEI announcement, Chick-fil-A makes reference to its corporate purpose, which is “to glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us” and “to have a positive influence on all who come into contact with Chick-fil-A.”

The Epoch Times has contacted Chick-fil-A for comment.

Backlash Growing

In recent weeks, a number of companies have faced backlash for embracing what critics say are left-wing values or a pro-LGBT agenda. Since early April, Bud Light has seen a significant backlash after it produced a beer can with transgender activist and influencer Dylan Mulvaney’s face and as Mulvaney suggested a partnership with the brand.

Read more here...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: budlighted; chickfila; dei; die; woke
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To: Amish with an attitude

To be fair, I should also mention that I went to Wendy’s about four or five months ago.

Two meals - a Frosty or two (perhaps) - $27.

Yowza.

I got the Hardee’s “Dinosaur Burger” - it was good - it was also nearly $27 for two. That Hardee’s has since closed down.


21 posted on 06/01/2023 1:00:25 AM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold ......)
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To: SeekAndFind
folks, support your local eatery's and businesses....I personally can't understand the chikfilet mistique....its not that good....

home cooked is always the best.

22 posted on 06/01/2023 1:27:46 AM PDT by cherry
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To: SeekAndFind

Black rock and others are funding this


23 posted on 06/01/2023 2:05:08 AM PDT by ronnie raygun
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To: SeekAndFind

Chick-fil-A’s quality has gone way down in the past year or two since they expanded so rapidly. The lines are still full, but that probably includes people who thought their last visit’s poor quality was just a one off. It’s not, I’ve had multiple successive bad outcomes from different locations.


24 posted on 06/01/2023 2:24:09 AM PDT by Mozzafiato
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To: AndyJackson

Imagine trying to make money by selling a good product that your customer’s want and not telling them how to live. It’s an absolute waste of corporate privilege.
____________________________
You identify the root of our problem - the marriage of ‘Corporatism’ and government. Benito Mussolini said, “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”


25 posted on 06/01/2023 3:06:32 AM PDT by iontheball
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To: SeekAndFind

Chickenshiites


26 posted on 06/01/2023 4:09:15 AM PDT by Old Yeller
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To: SeekAndFind
ROYGBIV


27 posted on 06/01/2023 4:17:33 AM PDT by RaceBannon (Rom 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for )
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To: Jess Kitting

several years ago, maybe 8 or 9, when the sodomites started to boycott and protest publically in front of them. Chic-fil-a broke then and made statements they didn’t mind about gays.


28 posted on 06/01/2023 4:19:09 AM PDT by RaceBannon (Rom 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for )
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To: Jess Kitting
When did they "go woke?"

My guess is that elements of the financial sector told them they better do it, or they will experience issues in the stock market and regulatory issues.

We need to get better at inflicting pain. We will lose if the Lefties are the only ones doing it.

29 posted on 06/01/2023 4:22:45 AM PDT by SauronOfMordor (The rot of all principle begins with a single compromise.)
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To: july4thfreedomfoundation

That was a disturbing video.


30 posted on 06/01/2023 4:24:14 AM PDT by rlmorel ("If you think tough men are dangerous, just wait until you see what weak men are capable of." JBP)
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To: Jess Kitting

Probably when the father died and the son took over.


31 posted on 06/01/2023 4:30:41 AM PDT by bankwalker (Repeal the 19th ...)
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To: SauronOfMordor
Isn't Chick-fil-A privately held? If that is true, the firm would not have any issue with leftist investors. The blame belongs to the children of Truitt Cathy.
32 posted on 06/01/2023 4:31:14 AM PDT by Wallace T.
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To: Jess Kitting

“When did they ‘go woke?’”

It must’ve been about five years ago. Had to do with support of homosexuals, IIRC.


33 posted on 06/01/2023 4:32:02 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (Joe Biden is to elections as Lance Armstrong is to cycling.)
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To: july4thfreedomfoundation

“Jesse Watters showed a video of the ahole CEO polishing a black guy’s shoes.”

The guys on LFS5B showed that, too. He was down on his knees, groveling. Said he had distributed thousands of those shoe-shine brushes to employees as a token for team building or something.

The man is seriously of the rails.


34 posted on 06/01/2023 4:36:11 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (Joe Biden is to elections as Lance Armstrong is to cycling.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Chick-fil-A restaurants have long been recognized as a place where people know they will be treated well.

So why didn't you just carry on?

Or do some need to be treated better than others? Hmmmm?

35 posted on 06/01/2023 4:39:32 AM PDT by grobdriver (The CDC can KMA!)
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To: SeekAndFind

For those still wondering...major investment firms (BlackRock, Vanguard, etc.) are *requiring* these companies to pass a DEI/CEI score to avoid disinvestment, along with no new investment, including financing, forcing their hands. Our 401k dollars are being used against us.

This *must* change. It translates into the very type of discrimination that is illegal, not hiring by merit but by gender and sexual orientation. Part of the score requires internal programs for LGBTQ+ folks (and ‘allies’) as well as engaging in contracts with LGBTQ+ entities.

DEI is pure marxism - equality of outcome. Of course, this can only go down the one, inevitable, path - equal misery for everyone - socialism at best, communism at worst. And the last person that can speak up, the straight white Christian male - if you do, you’ll be laughed at because your opinion doesn’t count because you have automatic “privilege”.

It’s sick. I know I lost out to a position due to this. I was highly qualified, 4 high level interviews went very well. Then I saw the job posted through a 3rd party resource firm, called “The Professional Diversity Network”. A firm dedicated to helping companies grow a ‘more diverse’ workforce. I inquired about the decision after a few of weeks and was told, “yes, top candidate! please have a little patience”. After another couple of weeks and then seeing this posting I withdrew my candidacy out of principle - let them know they’re going to lose good people. I don’t believe they filled the role yet.

That said, this crap is everywhere.


36 posted on 06/01/2023 4:52:26 AM PDT by fuzzylogic (welfare state = sharing of poor moral choices among everybody)
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To: SeekAndFind

Who could be this stupid? I will never eat there again.
Well, By.


37 posted on 06/01/2023 4:56:12 AM PDT by spincaster
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To: Hambone 1934

This.


38 posted on 06/01/2023 5:00:51 AM PDT by revetment
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To: Jess Kitting
"I thought they were one of the "good" companies that didn't put up with political correctness."

I believe it still is. If the owners are given a chance to defend themselves we may find a different story..

39 posted on 06/01/2023 5:12:23 AM PDT by unread ("It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required." W. Churchill.)
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To: RaceBannon

I’m currently listening to Grace to You sermons on living in America under judgment. This one is agrees how to live in a nation under divine abandonment.

Living in a Perverse World (Philippians 2:12-16)
https://youtu.be/eSXzUDh7o60


40 posted on 06/01/2023 5:17:28 AM PDT by ViLaLuz (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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