There has been much controversy in the news about
Chik-fil-A and their ties to the anti-gay movement. There are many reasons, including actual admittance, that warrant these allegations. Chik-fil-A was listed by the anti-gay marriage organization known as Pennsylvania Family Institute (PFI) as a co-sponsor of two marriage conferences. Chik-fil-A's chief operating officer Dan Cathy not only told the Christian news service Baptist Press that the company did support a “traditional family” but then he appeared on “The Ken Coleman Show” and stated that he believed advocating same-sex marriage would be “inviting God’s judment on our nation". Just yesterday, after months of public outcry and
withdrawal of some corporate support, Chik-fil-A has
claimed to longer"support political or social agendas". This
decision has caused quite a backlash, not only amongst Christian Rightists, but amongst the white supremacist movement as well.
Quote and screen shots from
Stormfront.org:
"Many White Nationalists supported Chick-Fil-A because it was in our interests to stand up for the traditional values that were instrumental in creating Western Civilization."
We can assume, just as Rick Garcia, senior policy adviser for the Civil Rights Agenda has, that the motivations behind this "change of heart" are strictly financial. The need to sell more chicken and climb to the number one rank as the nations largest chicken chain is clearly more important to them than their twisted homophobic beliefs.
So what does it mean if Chik-Fil-A has changed its policies? From our critical perspective this is a success because it has dried up funding that would otherwise be going to homophobic groups and nonprofits, and not because a capitalist corporation decided to become "moral". Under capitalism, a businesses very existence is based on the exploitation and alienation of every single living thing it reaches; from the person who grows/raises the food, to the person who cooks the food, to the person who serves the food, to the person who eats the food, and even to the food itself. It's not a matter of Chik-fil-A making "greedy" or "selfish" choices, it's the inescapable nature of capitalism. So we need not praise them, or Starbucks or any other business simply because they choose not to fund groups that promote homophobic bullshit.
Against Chik-fil-A, against Starbucks....against homophobia and capitalism! For a classless, free society!
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