My grandfather loved Cracker Barrel. When I’d go see him in Ohio, he’d say, “Let’s go to Cracker for breakfast.” There were some mornings I had no idea what he meant. I didn’t grow up with Cracker Barrel, so the brand was more or less foreign to me.
He died 20 years ago, and I can say with certainty that he wouldn’t be dining at his beloved Cracker today. If he knew the chain harbored hostility toward LGBTQ+ people, and that his grandson was gay, he’d “stay the hell away,” as he’d say.
If he knew how deep in the bag they were for Donald Trump, he’d most certainly opt for Bob Evans instead.
I’m not here to dissect the abject stupidity of Cracker Barrel’s latest self-inflicted brand disaster, though I could. After 35 years in corporate PR, I’ve written previously about witnessing plenty of companies stumble over themselves in the name of branding. But this one, wow, this really takes the cake, or in this case, pecan pie.
Cracker Barrel thought it would be smart to quietly refresh its brand, removing the old white man next to the barrel and rolling out a sleeker but lifeless logo. And, double wow, the heated backlash that it spurred was way over the top..
For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what all the fuss was about, but then it hit me. The angry white man was out of the picture, literally and figuratively, and that wasn’t squaring with an angry white man society that views any slight as a massive affront.
And the angry white man-in-chief, Trump, also the chief grievance purveyor, saw an opening and lashed out at the company for “erasing” the old man. Within minutes, that’s what it seemed like to me, Cracker Barrel folded, retreating back to its old logo like a whipped dog.
Of course, as soon as the old logo was replaced, Trump took credit for it.
The whole affair is absurd on the surface. Cracker Barrel is hardly a bastion of wokeness. Its entire image is an old-fashioned love letter to an antiquated time. A world where country ham, rocking chairs, and white men dominated the landscape.
Where Black people are openly discriminated against, a married woman is just referred to as “woman,” and guns are used lawlessly as sport on marginalized groups.
The idea that Cracker Barrel could be accused of selling out to liberal, or woke culture, is hysterical. And yet, the fury that erupted over the disappearance of the white barrel man revealed something far more troubling. That the fragile, seething anger of white men who still believe they own America is alive and kicking.
They’re the ones sitting around metaphorical barrels in red districts across the country, spouting their grievances about immigrants, women, queer people, and of course, people of color. They’ve got their nicknames for each of these groups, which are slurs they toss around casually and with cruelty, but you don’t need me to spell those words out.
The Cracker Barrel flap wasn’t really about a logo or about them removing their LGBTQ+ Pride and DEI pages from their website. But it proves that angry, racist, anti-LGBTQ+, misogynist white men still call the shots. They’ve got their man in the White House again, and they see his presidency as validation. The first term was a warm-up, and the game is on in the second term.
If Trump can dictate the design of a chain restaurant’s logo with a single Truth Social post, then surely their worldview, fueled by fear, prejudice, and resentment, still reigns supreme. When he tells white men to “stand back and stand by” they reply with, “Let’s go Brandon.”
There was a moment, which now seems so long ago, when many of us dared to hope this era might finally be over. A Kamala Harris victory felt like real freedom was on the horizon, a chance to move past the white-man-first mentality that has defined America for centuries.
But I will be the first to admit that that hope was naïve. Bigotry, like a growling bear, doesn’t just evaporate. It hibernates, waiting for the right conditions to come forward unfettered. Trump’s return was like the first day of spring.
This whole imbroglio wasn’t just about Cracker Barrel. What happened with that logo is a microcosm of something much bigger and eerily darker. Trump has his claw-prints on nearly every corner of the economy, twisting it to suit his ego and his cronies, with retribution tossed in for good measure.
He takes a cut from Intel. He doles out tariff exceptions to technology companies who show up on bended knee, bearing gifts. He nudges Coke toward cane sugar because it suits him. He tips the scales of the crypto industry with the stroke of a pen. And when he told Cracker Barrel to put the old white man back on their sign, they scrambled to obey.
This is how power works in Trump’s America, fueled by white men. Corporations cave because they fear his wrath, and in doing so, they empower the angry white men who see him as their mentor, and worse, their savior.
It’s a loop of prejudice and power, and it keeps the rest of us living in their indignant and sectarian shadow.
No, the era of angry white men is not behind us. With three and half years left to go in Trump’s term, the engine of hate is just revving up. Cracker Barrel made it plain that they’re still here, still furious, and still itching for prejudicial fights, and still yearning to dictate the terms of our culture.
Voices is dedicated to featuring a wide range of inspiring personal stories and impactful opinions from the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. Visit Advocate.com/submit to learn more about submission guidelines. Views expressed in Voices stories are those of the guest writers, columnists, and editors, and do not directly represent the views of The Advocate or our parent company, equalpride.
This article originally appeared on Advocate: Cracker Barrel proves that the era of the angry, racist, homophobic, white man is alive and well