Today is the day that former Arkansas governor and GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee declared the national “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.” For those unaware of why the nation needs to appreciate Chick-fil-A, you can read my earlier post about the entire issue.
For those unwilling to read that, here’s the issue in brief: Chick-fil-A’s president and CEO Dan Cathy affirmed that Chick-fil-A is anti-same-sex marriage. This caused people to be upset, especially when the knowledge of Chick-fil-A’s donations to several organizations that work against homosexuals and homosexuality was made more widely known. The Jim Henson Company cut ties with the restaurant, the mayors of Chicago and Boston told Chick-fil-A to not bother trying to open stores in their cities… It’s become a bit of an explosive big deal, as many things have done in this age of social media and knee jerk reactions.
The reason I return to this issue is multi-fold. First, I want to revisit the idea of the boycott. Why are people doing it? What does a boycott entail? What should the boycott mean? Second, I want to revisit the support of the issue. Third, I want to just revisit the entire issue, because today exploded in commentary and I think some people are rather unfortunately missing the point of things.
A friend of mine posted something on her Facebook today… Here’s a truncated version of what she said:
“Chik-fil-A doesn’t discriminate in hiring or when they give out employee scholarships so their employees can go to college. They also give tons of meals to homeless people and kitchens every year. OF COURSE CHIK-FIL-A IS ANTI GAY MARRIAGE. They don’t serve chicken on Sundays for goodness sake. They’ve been this way for years. This isn’t news any more than Anderson Cooper ‘coming out’ was news.
You cannot possibly boycott every company that doesn’t support Gay rights. You need gas for your cars, right? Well, the owners of OPEC are responsible for the DEATHS of gay people. You ever eat at Domino’s? Anti-gay marriage. You ever shop at Urban Outfitters? They’re anti-gay marriage. Walmart? Anti-gay marriage. Exxon? That’s right. Anti-Gay marriage. So why is Chik-fil-A getting all this attention?
Boycotting is Slactivism and I deplore slactivism.”
I feel a bit dirty cutting up some of what she said like that, but that’s basically the meat of it all. And she raises some good points. First, the knowledge of Chick-fil-A’s donations to the groups has been out there for years. I think I read about it years ago in brief. And it’s fine to be upset about those donations. Truly, it is. But people that are letting the opinion of one guy in the organization be what they’re rallying against… that’s a bit problematic.
After all. The company doesn’t discriminate against the LGBT community in the inner workings as far as anyone has noticed. The big problem for LGBT members and allies is the donations. Make that the issue.
Further, there is a problem with the idea that Chick-fil-A is not the only company with that opinion, or with someone at the head that has that opinion. If there are other companies that donate to anti-LGBT groups, then, really, you should consider boycotting them as well. It’s good to fully commit to your principles. Make this movement a movement for what you stand in. Don’t simply pick the easiest spot to turn away from.
And can we please not make this a hate issue? I have a bit of a problem with the word hate getting tossed around so cavalierly. The problem is that Chick-fil-A is comprised of many people. Lots of them. And some of them are very likely pro-LGBT and pro-same-sex marriage. The organization itself holds no discrimination against LGBT individuals that I’ve ever heard of.
This doesn’t mean I’m supporting them. I dislike the donations. But that’s the stance I’m taking. All this talk of hate and bigotry… it gets to a personal level unnecessary in the grand movement that should be taking place. It causes resentment by association. Suddenly anyone that works at Chick-fil-A could be labelled someone that hates homosexuals. This is an unfair and erroneous stance to take.
As for the people coming out in droves to support Chick-fil-A… Another friend of mine made a good point on Facebook. If all the people willing to divulge of their money simply to support “the freedom of speech” or, more often than not, Chick-fil-A’s stance against same-sex marriage were to take that money, time and effort and direct it at a cause like world hunger or curing AIDS or cancer… maybe we could actually make this nation, this world a better place to live. Instead, this has become a petty squabble, a foolish battle of the offended where money is tossed back and forth by people taking offense to something that has absolutely nothing to do with them. That is a poor position to take on this entire thing, too.
If Americans were to begin actively boycotting every single major corporation that did not agree with its views, there are several possible solutions.
One: Nothing would change. Depending on which stance is being boycotted over, there are several close call hot button issues in America that find themselves dead even amongst the consuming public.
Two: Corporations would be forced to amend their professional stances (a.k.a. who they’re giving money to) in order to salvage business. Personally, this is a dream result. Such things can happen, and it would be great if they did. If money were no longer funneled into hate groups, the world might improve. But the reality of the possibility of that not happening must be present in the minds of our intrepid boycotters.
Three: America would find itself at an economic standoff. There are so many people with so many varied opinions on so many varied subjects that, if applied full force, this sort of methodology could cause a capitalistic catastrophe where the stubborn stick with their views and the stubborn consumers suddenly find themselves consuming less and less. Depending on how stubborn people are, this could last long enough to hurt the country in some way.
In the end, really, you do what you want. Do what you think is right. However, I feel like the personal level this has been spiraling toward is a dangerous thing, something that needs to exit the national discussion immediately. This goes for all boycotts. Commit to a stance, but know why you’re committing to an action, and know exactly who that action should be directed toward. And, while you’re at it, maybe talk to your senators and representatives and try to get some political actions in play.
chaoticpen 