Conservatives are having a kitten over Cracker Barrel’s embrace of Pride Month and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
The outrage adds the country store and restaurant chain to the string of companies and products being canceled by the right for being too “woke,” joining the likes of Chick-fil-A, Bud Light, Target, Kohl’s, The North Face, Lego and more.
One conservative group declared that “Cracker Barrel has fallen” because of the company’s fairly conventional nod to inclusion and diversity:
Right-wingers were also triggered by an image the company posted on its social media channels showing its porch full of rocking chairs, with one featuring a rainbow pattern in the slats:
“We are excited to celebrate Pride Month with our employees and guests. Everyone is always welcome at our table,” the company wrote.
Cracker Barrel did not always welcome everyone at its table, or at least within its employment ranks. The company notoriously banned LGBTQ people from working in its restaurants and fired employees it learned were gay. Those transphobic policies were reversed in 1991.
The company now has a diversity, equity and inclusion policy, scores an 80 on the Human Rights Campaign’s corporate equality index and made headlines in 2019 for refusing to allow an anti-gay pastor to hold an event in one of its restaurants.
Right-wingers aren’t happy with those changes, but plenty of people are thrilled ― and many comments on Facebook are celebrating the company.
Cracker Barrel is responding to some of those positive posts.
“We want everyone to feel welcome at our table, and that will never change,” the company said in response to one.
“We truly value what everyone brings to the table and couldn’t be happier to read your kind words,” it wrote to another.
The right’s latest meltdown led to big laughs on Twitter ― and caused Cracker Barrel to trend: