One would be very hard-pressed to find a UF student or Gainesville resident who doesn’t love Chick-fil-A. The juicy, delicious chicken always complemented by a duo of dill pickle chips, the diverse and flavorful sauces, the consistently crunchy and impeccably salted fries, the sweetness and perfect consistency of the strawberry milkshakes… there’s just so much to love. In a perfect world, we could spend this entire editorial extolling Chick-fil-A’s bountiful virtues.
But we don’t live in that world. For better or for worse, ours is a world where Chick-fil-A, the undisputed king of quality in the fast-food game, finds itself embroiled in social debates time and time again. The summer of 2012 was marked by controversy for the company, when the public became aware of multi-billionaire CEO Dan T. Cathy’s donations to organizations hostile to LGBTQ+ causes, such as the Family Research Counsel and the Marriage and Family Foundation. For the record, as detestable as Cathy’s homophobia is, he has the right to spend his profits in any legal manner he sees fit. Likewise, people have the right to protest and voice their disapproval in a reasonable manner.
But today’s editorial isn’t about the summer of 2012, or even Cathy’s further homophobic misadventures. As reported by Glenn Beck’s (ugh) independent media network TheBlaze and Complex, a Texas Chick-fil-A gave its employees T-shirts that say "Go Blue or Go Home" and "Back the Blue." As reported by TheBlaze, Eli Advincula, the manager for the location, said the shirts are meant to "show our support for Police Lives Matter."
Sigh — no shit. Of course police lives matter because all lives matter. It just so happens that time and again, it has been shown that black lives are valued that much less in this country, especially when it comes to law enforcement. Misgivings about activists operating under the Black Lives Matter banner aside — be on the lookout for an editorial on the stupidity that was the march in a Dartmouth library — the central thesis behind the initial message rings true. The BLM phrase would never have had to come about if black people (especially those in low-income and crime-ridden areas) weren’t killed by police officers at disproportionate rates or were afforded the same educational or job opportunities as those in more ideal living situations.
The hashtags (ugh) #alllivesmatter and #policelivesmatters shouldn’t exist — anyone with a half-functioning moral compass has already discerned that those things are true. The people who propagate these phrases are acting in opposition to BLM, as though the very concept itself poses a grave threat to their lives and understandings of the world around them. Why? All the BLM hashtag (UGH) is trying to communicate is black lives are just as valuable and deserve to be regarded with the same respects as those afforded to other Americans or law enforcement officials. It should be self-evident that supporting the notion of BLM does not mean taking away from the intrinsic value of others, but apparently that was lost on Eli Advincula.
Misguided or not, it is a shame Advincula feels compelled to once more taint the simple pleasures of Chick-fil-A with divisive rhetoric. We’ll always love Chick-fil-A, but it’s a shame that Chick-fil-A may not love its customers as we love it.
