Cracker Barrel removes Pride and DEI pages from official website
(NEXSTAR) — Cracker Barrel’s recent attempts to introduce a new logo didn’t go over so well with its most vocal critics, prompting the company to revert back to the old logo on Tuesday.
A couple of other recent changes to the Cracker Barrel website, however, have largely gone under the radar.
As reported Thursday by outlets including The Advocate and CNN, Cracker Barrel’s website appears to have removed a “Pride page” referencing the company’s LGBTQ+ Alliance and its employees’ participation in past Pride parades in Nashville, according to an online archive of the site. There was also a page outlining the company’s diversity and inclusion efforts, which is no longer active.
“We are increasing our focus on leadership development and mentorship programs to better identify, recruit and advance strong, racially and ethnically diverse talent,” the webpage had read, according to the archived version.
Both webpages had been active for several years, the Wayback Machine, an internet archival tool, suggests.
On another page touting the company’s “culture of belonging,” Cracker Barrel also appears to have removed a list of employee-led business resource groups offering opportunities to Black, Hispanic, LGBTQ+ and neurodivergent employees, among other groups. It was unclear if these resource groups or alliances were still active, despite their information being removed from the site.
A representative for Cracker Barrel was not immediately available to comment on the website’s changes or when they took place.
In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for Cracker Barrel said the company “recently” removed “out-of-date content” from the site. Regarding the business resource groups, Cracker Barrel said it made changes to “focus all sponsorships or events on our corporate giving initiatives: addressing food insecurity, supporting community needs through food, and reducing food waste.”
Many of the elements removed from the Cracker Barrel site — talk of DEI, and LGBTQ+-inclusive language — have been targets of criticism from conservative politicians and media. President Donald Trump, notably, has made efforts to roll back protections for the LGBTQ+ community and remove recognition and rights for transgender individuals. He has also put pressure on businesses to drop their DEI initiatives, and threatened to withhold funds from colleges that maintained their DEI programs.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Trump also joined critics of the more minimal Cracker Barrel logo in calling for the return of the old one. The White House later took credit when Cracker Barrel ultimately scrapped the new logo and embraced the older one.