October 16, 2025
‘I was kind of humiliated and embarrassed, you know, at the whole situation. It seemed like it was a racial issue to me,” said Clover Police Sgt. Tracey Reid.
Four police officers walked into a Chick-fil-A in South Carolina, and while the three white officers received a complimentary meal from the restaurant, the lone Black officer had to pay for his food, causing an uproar from the officers, who stated that racism was the cause of the Black officer being made to pay for his meal.
According to WSOC-TV, the incident took place at a Chick-fil-A in Augusta several weeks ago, Clover Police Sgt. Tracey Reid was singled out, even though he was with the other three officers when they all ordered food from the fast food spot. It’s customary for the restaurant to comp the meals of law enforcement officers who dine there.
“We came in together, same uniform, stood in line, there was never a time we were not together while standing in line,” Reid told the media outlet.
When he went to obtain his order, he was instructed to make payment for his meal, which made him feel a way, knowing that his coworkers had been given their meal for free. He felt it was racism.
“I was kind of humiliated and embarrassed, you know, at the whole situation. It seemed like it was a racial issue to me,” said Reid.
The incident also angered his fellow police officers when they noticed the discrepancy.
“He said he had to pay for his meal, and it infuriated me,“ said Detective Thomas Barnette. ”And I said, ‘You want me to go say something?’ He was like ‘No, I don’t want you to cause a scene,’ but I could tell the way he looked; he just looked at his plate, he looked sad and humiliated, and that made me really mad.”
Frustrated by what appeared to be a blatant act of racial bias, Reid penned a letter to the corporate offices of Chick-fil-A requesting that the fast food restaurant retrain employees at the Augusta location and strengthen the company’s policies on compliance with civil rights laws.
The manager from the Augusta location responded by sending two comp meal cards, but that wasn’t satisfactory for Reid and the other officers who were with him. In the letter, it was written that the incident was perceived as racial, but the officers stated implicitly that it was indeed a racial incident.
“It said it was perceived that it was a racial incident, which I didn’t like, because it wasn’t perceived; it actually happened,” Reid said.
Barnette added, “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.”
The manager included an apology and mentioned that the person who performed the racist act was a team leader who doesn’t usually work at the register. The manager also called the incident a mistake.
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