If you’ve been on the internet at all lately, you’ve probably seen the news that Cracker Barrel has rebranded itself, and the results are just awful.
Gone is that Southern hospitality charm the restaurant is known for, and in its place is a soulless “woke” vibe. People suspected they were trying to possibly appeal to Gen Z, but as it turns out, it’s more political than anything.
According to Upward News, the story actually goes back to the 90s, when Cracker Barrel had allegedly discriminated against both gay customers and workers. Hard-leftists saw the restaurant as a symbol of the South and attacked it relentlessly.
Enter the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ+ advocacy organization in the United States. Its Corporate Equality Index is something of a benchmark that rates companies on how friendly their policies and practices are for workplace inclusion. You’ll often find investment firms like BlackRock work with the HRC to judge companies, and those who fall out of favor with the HRC often find themselves facing pressure from BlackRock to raise them.
This includes Cracker Barrel, as BlackRock owns 3.23 million shares of the restaurant, adding up to 14.52 percent of Cracker Barrel’s outstanding shares.
HRC is known for pressuring companies to become more “inclusive” and leftist in nature, and if a bad score is given, it becomes a target for leftist hate, which could also result in bad press, boycott efforts, and more.
So basically, it’s a leftist bullying operation, and Cracker Barrel was a prime target for bullying, according to a post from Upward News on X:
By 2005, Cracker Barrel had a failing grade from HRC. Then came Steve Smotherman, a corporate leader who launched internal LGBTQ reforms, steadily raising the company’s HRC score. He even sat on an HRC advisory council, linking the chain directly to the group’s agenda.
Over the next two decades, Cracker Barrel reshaped itself — changing internal policies, pulling “controversial” items from stores, blocking certain figures from dining events, funding Pride parades, and chasing higher woke scores.
This is the story of how Cracker Barrel went woke.
It isn’t about a bad design firm botching a rebrand, or a struggling restaurant trying to win over Gen Z.
Keep reading to find out what really happened.
It started in the early 1990s, when Cracker Barrel was caught in a… pic.twitter.com/cxxnXf71ti
— Upward News (@UpwardNewsHQ) August 21, 2025
As it shows in its post thread, former HRC President Elizabeth Birch admitted that they had been targeting Cracker Barrel, describing the suggestion it was “under fire” as an “understatement.”
Former President of Human Rights Campaign (HRC) openly admitting that Cracker Barrel was targeted by the progressive institution. pic.twitter.com/CcvMKfCdjP
— Upward News (@UpwardNewsHQ) August 21, 2025
This means that this wasn’t just a really bad idea from a restaurant looking to update itself. This was a years-long campaign to pressure and pull Cracker Barrel into ridding itself of its Southern personality and adopt a more neutral personality that pleased hard-leftists, many of whom don’t frequent those restaurants anyway.
And without waiting for time to pass to see if it helps improve the restaurant’s attendance, I can make the safe assumption that this pivot in the name of pleasing the most unpleasable people in the world is going to drive away whatever loyal base it had left. People who liked the restaurant for its Southern charm and likely felt it was relatable will probably no longer find it speaks to them.
More than that, anyone who catches on that this rebrand was done to please an LGBTQ+ bullying organization will likely turn their back on it on principle.
The left set out to destroy Cracker Barrel, and one way or another, it succeeded. Cracker Barrel may soon find itself erased from people’s list of places to eat, and even if it still manages to stay in business, the Cracker Barrel you once knew is gone.
Another thing the left has destroyed.
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