Chick-fil-A offers apology after Black police officer made to pay while white colleagues ate for free

Tracy Reid is speaking out after he was made to pay for his meal while his white colleagues ate for free at a Georgia Chick-fil-A.

Chick-fil-A is apologizing after a Black police officer in South Carolina was forced to pay for his food while his white colleagues ate for free.

Tracy Reid, a police officer in Clover, South Carolina, said the incident, which occurred during a visit to a Georgia location a few weeks ago, left him feeling “humiliated” and “embarrassed.”

“I was kind of humiliated and embarrassed, you know, at the whole situation. It seemed like it was a racial issue to me,” Reid told WSOC.

According to Reid, he was traveling for work with colleagues when they stopped into a Chick-fil-A in Augusta for breakfast. However, after Reid’s colleagues—who were all white—received their meals for free as part of a promotion the fast-food chain offers to law enforcement, he was charged for his.

“We came in together, same uniform, stood in line, there was never a time we were not together while standing in line,” Reid explained.

Rather than react in the moment, Reid chose to stay calm and even declined when his colleagues offered to speak up on his behalf. Afterward, he wrote a letter to Chick-fil-A’s corporate office detailing what happened. The company later issued an apology, calling the situation an “oversight.”

“We regret the unintentional impact this incident had and sincerely apologize to our guest,” the company said in a statement, per WSB-TV. “We were deeply concerned by this claim. It appears to have been an honest oversight across separate lines and registers. We are strongly committed to supporting our community’s first responders.”

Reid, however, disagreed with the company’s characterization of the incident as a “perceived” racial issue.

“It said it was perceived that it was a racial incident, which I didn’t like, because it wasn’t perceived; it actually happened,” he said.

His colleague Detective Thomas Barnette, who witnessed the exchange, echoed that sentiment.

“He’s not the only one that perceived it. We all did, and it’s not perception—it’s what happened. It was a racial issue.”