Chick-fil-A CEO urged white people to take action against racism and said he does not blame looters after multiple locations were damaged last week
- Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy urged white people to repent and take action against racism during a roundtable discussion Sunday at Passion City Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
- Cathy said a dozen Chick-fil-A restaurants had been vandalized in the last week.
- "My plea would be for the white people, rather than point fingers at that kind of criminal effort, would be to see the level of frustration and exasperation and almost a sense of hopelessness that exists among some of those activists within the African American community," Cathy said in the discussion.
Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy urged white people to take action against racism amid a period of tension and protest in the US, following the death Rayshard Brooks, a Black man who died after a white police officer shot him last week.
In a Sunday roundtable discussion at Passion City Church in Atlanta, Georgia with Passion City founder Louie Giglio and Lecrae, a Christian rapper, the fast-food chain CEO spoke of repentance and understanding.
The CEO said that a dozen Chick-fil-A restaurants had been vandalized in the last week, but urged white people not to place blame on the vandals.
"My plea would be for the white people, rather than point fingers at that kind of criminal effort, would be to see the level of frustration and exasperation and almost a sense of hopelessness that exists among some of those activists within the African-American community that are so exasperated," Cathy said.
The Cathy family, which owns Chick-fil-A, cites Christian values as part of their philosophy guiding their leadership of the company. Founder Truett Cathy, Dan Cathy's father, translated his faith into his business practices, which has helped contribute to the fast-food giant's success.
During the roundtable, Cathy mentioned that "conscious and unconscious biases" at the workplace and in corporate offices are not entirely uncommon, mentioning a conversation he had with a Black Chick-fil-A employee who said she had experienced injustice in her job.
Dan Cathy previously outlined his thoughts on the current events in the US via a LinkedIn post, which was shared on the Chick-fil-A website. In the post, Cathy described the ways Chick-fil-A is helping to rebuild and donate resources to what he described as "the most distressed zip code in Georgia."
While discussing the topic of repentance, Cathy got up and shined Lecrae's shoes on stage and said that the world needs to have a sense of shame, embarrassment, and "an apologetic heart."
"Our silence is so huge in this time," Cathy said during the roundtable. "We cannot be silent. Somebody has to fight."