Chick-fil-A fumbled for an apology over the weekend after the fast-food chicken franchise was accused of making a racist comment in response to a customer on social media.
A Twitter user on Friday tweeted at the company: “grilled spicy deluxe but still noooo spicy nuggets…………@ChickfilA…..”
In a reply, the verified Twitter account for Chick-fil-A wrote, “Your community will be the first to know if spicy items are added to the permanent menu, Don!”
This seemingly innocuous exchange led to a deluge of comments on Chick-fil-A’s response, which thousands of people suggested was offensive based on the words “your community.” Many people observed that the original poster, “Don,” appears to be black and asked if Chick-fil-A was targeting the black community.
“wdym by your community???” one person wrote to Chick-fil-A in a reply that was liked more than 21,000 times.
From there, hundreds of users posted jokes and memes poking fun at Chick-fil-A’s tweet. But some people took it seriously and seemed offended.
“Chic…this aint a good look. What you meant by that specifically?” one person asked.
“Explain yourself – QUICKLY,” demanded Tenille Clarke, a publicist for Chambers Media Solutions.
“8 hours later and this racist tweet is still up. Damn I am in shock , actually no I am not it’s @ChickfilA, I shouldn’t expect anything less,” another user posted.
However, a review of Chick-fil-A’s official Twitter account indicates that the company’s social media team uses the term “your community” frequently in response to comments from all types of customers.
“Hi there! We know our customers love the heat, so we’re testing spicy items in different markets. We’ll be sure to let your community know if spicy items are added into our permanent menu!” Chick-fil-A wrote in response to at least four customers on Friday alone.
Most of these tweets were sent in response to customers complaining that Chick-fil-A has yet to roll out a spicy version of the restaurant’s delicious chicken nuggets.
In a statement to NBC News, the company confirmed that it uses the word “community” in social media communications to refer to places where it has established restaurants. Chick-fil-A apologized for its “poor choice of words.”
“The response was a poor choice of words but was not intended in any way to be insensitive or disrespectful,” a Chick-fil-A spokesperson said. “We often use the term ‘community’ in a broader sense to talk about places where we operate restaurants and serve the surrounding community.”