I agree with your last point, it's not that hard to accept the fact that your company is influenced by social trends. Pretending that we're laser focused and everything should be checked at the door wreaks of bias.

Clearly, the CEO was not distressed at the events, and wanted to minimize anyone else's negative feelings about the matter because it wasn't important to him.

A better CEO might recognize that this issue was important to the social fabric and therefore is also important to his company's mission.