Colonel Sander’s family has responded to Papa John’s founder after he claimed Colonel Sanders used racial slurs.
Schnatter, 56, allegedly said, “Colonel Sanders called black people [omitted]” then claimed Sanders never received criticism for his comments.
“Because he’s prejudiced, he’s trying to say somebody else was, too. [Sanders] had absolutely no prejudice against anybody,” Adams told the news website.
Adams, who worked in his grandfather’s stores in the 1950s, explained that Sanders had employed black employees in his kitchens, and he never saw or heard his grandfather treating them without respect.
“There was no racism in him,” Adams told the news website. “To him, all people were equally children of God.”
“He loved anyone who he felt was kind and good and faithful,” Adams said.
Schnatter stepped down as chairman of the board of Papa John’s International Inc. on July 11 after Forbes reported on the conference call incident, citing unnamed sources that were on the call with him.“This other party used that word a lot,” he said. “By the fourth or fifth pass, I just said, ‘No, we’re not gonna be part of any such thing. So-and-so used the n-word, and we don’t use the n-word, and we’re not gonna use the n-word. And that’s it.’ So, we kind of shut that down quickly.”
Schnatter also claimed in the interview that he was blackmailed over the racial slur.
“They wanted $6 million to make it go away. I’m like, ‘I’m not paying you $6 million,’” he told the news station. “And they made it pretty clear […] the words were ‘If I don’t get my … money, I’m going to bury the founder,’ said one of the executives.
“They can take the $6 million and whatever, they’re not getting it. So, yeah they tried to extort us and we held firm. They took what I said and they ran to Forbes and Forbes printed it and it went viral.”
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