Recently, the restaurant Cracker Barrel drew strong criticism from some white Southerners after it changed its logo. The old logo featured a white man leaning against a barrel. The new one has neither the man nor the barrel.
That small design change sparked big emotions. Many white patrons were outraged, lamenting the disappearance of what they openly called “the cracker.” Ordinarily, cracker is a slur for white Southerners. Yet, in this backlash, many embraced it much like some Black folks have flipped the N-word into a term of endearment.
For me, this cleared up a long-standing question. I had always wondered: Was the man in the old logo really supposed to represent a “cracker”? I even asked managers about it when we occasionally ate there. They always denied it, and my research turned up nothing definitive.
But their denials never fully eased my discomfort. I always felt uneasy dining there. It felt like the white patrons were silently asking, Why are you here? Can’t we have something just for ourselves? It made me wonder if I could even trust the food being served to me.
So to the outraged white patrons: thank you. By openly and honestly embracing the label and confirming the man in the logo was indeed a “cracker,” you’ve helped me understand why the restaurant always carried that vibe for me.
A Brief History of Cracker Barrel
Cracker Barrel was founded in 1969 along Interstate 40 in Lebanon, Tennessee. Its original pitch was simple: serve Southern “comfort food” and give travelers a place that looked and felt like a country store. The rocking chairs out front, the wooden porch, the gift shop full of checkerboards and cornbread mix—all of it was meant to sell nostalgia.
But nostalgia for what? For many white Southerners, Cracker Barrel represented an idealized South complete with front porches, slow drawls, and fried chicken cooked in lard. For many Black Southerners, though, that same imagery recalled something else: a time when “Southern hospitality” didn’t extend to us.
The company has had to wrestle with this image before. In the 1990s, it was accused of widespread racial discrimination in both its hiring and treatment of customers. The Justice Department filed suit, and Cracker Barrel ended up settling claims that Black diners were seated in undesirable sections, given slower service, or simply turned away. For some of us, those settlements confirmed what we already felt when we walked through the door.
So when the logo was changed, it wasn’t just a marketing decision, it touched a nerve. That little man on the barrel wasn’t just a drawing. He had become a symbol of who the restaurant was for.
Why the Change Now?
Here’s the twist: the company’s new CEO admitted that, despite all the heartbreak expressed online, Southern whites actually didn’t frequent the restaurant as much as people assumed. The logo change wasn’t about political correctness or “woke pressure,” as critics claimed. It was about business. They wanted to expand the customer base to increase profitability.
But here’s my issue. There’s an old saying: you can change laws, but you can’t change hearts. Likewise, you can remove the cracker from the logo, but that doesn’t change the cracker’s heart. The restaurant can freshen up its look, but until it fully reckons with its history and how it made many of us feel unwelcome, the logo swap is just window dressing.
So no, don’t expect me back anytime soon.
Because at the end of the day, whether it’s on the sign or not, the cracker spirit lingers inside.
