Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy Says ‘We Don’t Like Blacks Either’-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
After Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy came out against gay marriage, rumors spread that Dan Cathy said “We don’t like blacks either” and planned a marketing campaign to undermine them.
The Truth:
False reports that Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy said, “We don’t like blacks either,” has been circulating since the publication of a satirical article making that claim in 2012.
The original report appeared at Free Wood Post, a self-described “political satire web publication,” under the headline, “Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy – ‘We Don’t Like The Blacks Either.'” The report came out in 2012 after Cathy faced public backlash over his public opposition to gay marriage, and public support from conservative groups that staged a “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.” In the report, Cathy is quoted as saying:
“Let’s milk this for all its worth. Let’s wait until this gay thing dies down a little, then I will release another statement that says that we don’t like blacks either. Now, they’re protected by those stupid discrimination laws so we’ll need to be careful, but I think it will work. I mean hey, it’s not like it’s a lie. We’ll have another Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day before you know it!”
Then, the satirical report continues, Dan Cathy supposedly doubled-down on his statement when he said “I’m being honest, we really don’t care for them”:
“We are a private company with a deeply personal belief system. We are lucky to live in a country where we are allowed to practice those beliefs. We abide by all of the discrimination laws and we welcome colored folk in our restaurants. I even hire them to work in my restaurants. We do not discriminate against anyone because of their color. However, if I’m being honest, we really don’t care for them. That is my opinion and I have a right to express it.
The original report is clearly labeled as satire. As is often the case, however, many people mistook the report for factual news when it was taken out of context on social media. RZA, a rapper from the group Wu Tang Clan, tweeted a link to the story in 2013 without providing further comment, which fueled the misunderstanding:
By 2017, claims that Dan Cathy said “We don’t like blacks either” still persisted. The original satirical report was re-reported by a website called Viral Mugshot without being clearly labeled as satire, and links to the report circulated on social media. There has never been any merit, however, to those claims that Cathy said he doesn’t like black people, and this one is “fiction.”