Go Woke Go Broke!

[Some Schmo]

I, too, am offended when corporations pretend to have values, especially since most of them really don't.

This is how I feel about GOP voters.

[canpakes]

In many Cracker Barrels, the images or portraits displayed on the walls predominantly feature white individuals. Clearly, with the new CEO of Cracker Barrel being a marxist progressive figure, the initial step taken during the restaurant's interior remodeling was to eliminate the images of white individuals and the limited representations of some Black Americans.

You’re saying that they took down old pictures of unidentified people, regardless of their skin color, and you believe that’s ‘woke’? That’s what you’re going with?

Are you feeling as if some kind of ‘safe space’ for you has been violated?

Is all interior decoration and updating now ‘woke’ if we don’t put up pictures of random, unidentified white folks?

Does MAGA know what it wants, and does it understand how it sounds more injured and snowflakey than anyone they’re calling ‘woke’?

Don’t forget to tell us when you’re going down there to complain and shake your cane at them.

[Kishkumen]

I, too, am offended when corporations pretend to have values, especially since most of them really don't.

This is how I feel about GOP voters.

And for good reason.

[Doctor Steuss]

I, too, am offended when corporations pretend to have values, especially since most of them really don't.

I think this is one of the places where Costco seems to stand out. It doesn't seem to be a play for market share, or virtue signaling, but an actual ethos. I think people can pick up on that.

While corporate bankruptcies have increased under Trump to levels that haven't been seen since the pandemic, "woke" Costco saw an 8.2% net sales increase over the last 36 weeks. Net income per diluted share went from $3.78 to $4.28 (an over 12% increase).

Being woke, because it's what you actually believe in seems to mean that instead of "going broke," you make an absolute killing.

Meanwhile, Target, who cosplayed as "woke," and then capitulated to Trump and went anti-woke has seen net sales decrease every quarter.

How did Cracker Barrel ‘go woke’?

Guessing it has to do with their new logo.

[canpakes]

I think this is one of the places where Costco seems to stand out. It doesn't seem to be a play for market share, or virtue signaling, but an actual ethos. I think people can pick up on that.

While corporate bankruptcies have increased under Trump to levels that haven't been seen since the pandemic, "woke" Costco saw an 8.2% net sales increase over the last 36 weeks. Net income per diluted share went from $3.78 to $4.28 (an over 12% increase).

Being woke, because it's what you actually believe in seems to mean that instead of "going broke," you make an absolute killing.

Meanwhile, Target, who cosplayed as "woke," and then capitulated to Trump and went anti-woke has seen net sales decrease every quarter.

Thanks for mentioning Costco. They’re quite committed to their DEI initiatives.

Costco Shareholders Overwhelmingly Support Company’s DEI Policies As Other Major Retailers Retreat

Pamela N. Danziger,Senior Contributor. Pam Danziger reports on retail, focused on the luxury consumer market.

Jan 25, 2025 at 02:10pm EST

TOPLINE

In a nearly unanimous decision, Costco shareholders voted in support of Costco’s current diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives after the National Center for Public Policy Research submitted a proxy proposal to audit the company’s “litigation, reputational and financial risks.” As the Trump administration levels against DEI, Costco is swimming against a tide causing numerous large retail corporations to dial back DEI initiatives, including Amazon, Walmart, McDonald’s, Lowe’s, Tractor Supply and most recently Target.

KEY FACTS

- According to preliminary results, over 98% of Costco shareholders voted down NCPPR’s proxy proposal that the company conduct an evaluation and publish a report on the company’s risks of maintaining its current DEI policies.

- In mid-December, Costco’s board unanimously rejected NCPPR’s proposal in a proxy statement declaring the company regularly evaluates its practices “concerning compliance with law” and that the request for a study reflects a “policy bias” with which it disagrees.

- The shareholder vote comes just days after President Trump issued an executive order dismantling DEI programs across the federal government, including putting employees who work in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion departments on paid leave and verifying all federal contractors don’t have DEI programs, which the administration believes violate anti-discrimination laws.

- A follow-up executive order takes aim at DEI programs more broadly across the private sector, including publicly-traded corporations.

BACKGROUND

The NCPPR proxy proposal to conduct and make public an audit of Costco’s DEI program seemed benign on the surface since it only called on the company to do a study not to take down or unwind its program. However, the company saw it differently. The Board stated inclusion was critical to making its employees feel valued and respected and that it welcomes diverse members from “all walks of life and backgrounds” because it drives greater employee satisfaction and enhances company “originality and creativity.” Yet, NCPPR claimed the company’s DEI program was hiding illegal “discriminatory practices” that factor race and sex in hiring and promotions. The company defended its program as being critical to its success and that all policies follow the law and Costco’s code of ethics. Shareholders agreed.

CRUCIAL QUOTE

“We have always been purposefully non-political and a welcoming workforce has been integral to the company’s culture and values since its founding,” said Costco board chairman Tony James during the shareholder meeting.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamdanzige ... s-retreat/

[Gunnar]

What Hound doesn't or refuses to realize is that that DEI programs were initiated in the first place because of a correct perception that various minorities, particularly people of color, were being unfairly discriminated against. Companies like COSTCO have benefitted from well thought out and administered DEI initiatives and have thereby enhanced both the diversity and quality of their workforce and, thereby, their profits. I am firmly convinced that the backlash against DEI and woke policies comes mainly from conservatives who deep down want to return to and perpetuate the old discriminatory practices and racism that preferentially and unfairly benefitted people like themselves. Trump himself is a good example of this.

Decades-Old Housing Discrimination Case Plagues Donald Trump

During the presidential debate on Monday night, Hillary Clinton raised a 1973 federal lawsuit brought against Donald Trump and his company for alleged racial discrimination at Trump housing developments in New York.

The Justice Department sued Donald Trump, his father, Fred, and Trump Management in order to obtain a settlement in which Trump and his father would promise not to discriminate. The case eventually was settled two years later after Trump tried to countersue the Justice Department for $100 million for making false statements. Those allegations were dismissed by the court.

"Donald started his career, back in 1973, being sued by the Justice Department for racial discrimination — because he would not rent apartments in one of his developments to African-Americans, and he made sure that the people who worked for him understood that was the policy," Clinton said on Monday night.

"It was a suit that was directly against them, and it is one that Donald Trump to this day clearly is upset about."

No wonder Trump is so dead set against programs that promote diversity and equity! He was (and very likely remains) one of the worst offenders with regard to hateful, discrimination against minorities, particularly non/white people!

Hound can't honestly deny this without revealing either his own bigoted tendencies and/or how badly misinformed he is.

[Gadianton]

So a place called "Cracker Barrell" is supposed to be filled with pictures of white people?

[Vēritās]

How did Cracker Barrel ‘go woke’?

Hound is a trolling moron and a racist.

Cracker Barrel in Kennesaw Georgia has a little store in the front where people shop while they wait for their tables. Among the items sold in their store? The DVD set of the Dukes of Hazard.

Yeah, totally "woke."

[Gunnar]

This article confirms what I said in an earlier post. The Trump administration is not even trying to hide it anymore. Their aim is to purge from American schools and history museums any references to slavery or any admissions that America has ever done anything wrong. They are also aiming to purge or minimize any historical references showing that anyone other than White Americans have ever made any valuable and admirable contributions to American greatness. This in keeping with their anti-woke and anti- DEI agenda dismissing as insignificant or non-existent any contributions to American culture by Blacks, immigrants, females or any other minorities Trump doesn't like.

Behind Trump's latest purge — and why MAGA's no longer pretending | Opinion

In his novel 1984, George Orwell warned, “Those who control the present control the past, and those who control the past control the future.” Today, Donald Trump and the GOP have weaponized that prophecy, twisting it into the foundation of their crusade to Make America White Again.

In his novel 1984, George Orwell warned, “Those who control the present control the past, and those who control the past control the future.” Today, Donald Trump and the GOP have weaponized that prophecy, twisting it into the foundation of their crusade to Make America White Again.

What they are building is not a political movement but a parallel nation — a MAGAstan — where loyalty oaths replace truth, history is scrubbed clean of slavery and racism, and authoritarian obedience is demanded in the name of patriotism.

This is America’s homegrown Taliban, and they’re no longer pretending to hide their intentions.

When the Oklahoma Department of Education rolled out its new “America First” MAGA certification exam for teachers, designed with the help of a rightwing propaganda outlet, it wasn’t about improving education. It was about making sure that any teacher who dares to acknowledge the realities of race, gender, or American history is shut out of the profession.

Applicants from California or New York now must take a test that appears to demand perfect answers on questions about civics, chromosomes, religion, and so-called gender ideology. It’s not an exam, it’s a political loyalty test, and it fits neatly into the larger pattern we are seeing in Republican politics today. They aren’t hiding their racism or misogyny anymore. They’re reveling in it.

That reality was underscored by Trump’s latest tantrum against the Smithsonian and other museums. On his Nazi-infested social media platform, Trump complained that our museums are “out of control” because they talk about “how bad slavery was,” racism, and the struggles of the downtrodden. He whined that there is “nothing about success, nothing about brightness, nothing about the future”

What he really means is that America should stop teaching about slavery, Jim Crow, redlining, and ongoing systemic racism and instead return to a whitewashed myth of national greatness that erases Black, Indigenous, and other marginalized voices.

His words are a plain translation of the GOP’s broader war on what they call “woke.” Being “anti-woke” is just a thinly veiled way of saying, “We’re okay with racism and misogyny.”

And Trump is the perfect avatar for this reinvention of the Confederacy, as I detail in my newest book The Last American President: A Broken Man, a Corrupt Party, and a World on the Brink.

Trump’s and his GOP’s pro-racism neofascist purges go far beyond education and museums; they’ve also gone after the federal workforce with a vengeance. They canceled the government’s annual employee survey, gutted DEI programs across every agency, and are mass-firing federal workers, particularly in agencies that employ large numbers of Black women.

The so-called Department of Government Efficiency — run by a Nazi-saluting white South African immigrant — put more than a quarter of a million jobs on the chopping block, devastating communities where civil service has long been the pathway into the middle class.

Black Americans, particularly Black women, have disproportionately relied on those jobs for stability and upward mobility. Taking them away isn’t about saving taxpayer money: it’s a targeted attack, designed to roll back decades of progress.

At the same time, groups aligned with Trump are publishing watchlists of federal workers they call “subversives,” lists overwhelmingly filled with women and people of color. Those people are now being hounded, relocated, or forced out altogether.

Senior women and Black leaders in the military are being fired or pushed into retirement. Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, NATO’s only woman on its military committee, was removed. Army Lt. Gen. Telita Crosland, who had led military healthcare, was forced to resign after 32 years of service.

These purges are political, not professional. They’re designed to restore the military to a largely all-white, all-male leadership structure. And at the same time, Trump and his enablers are working to rename bases after Confederate generals and restore monuments dedicated to traitors who fought against democracy to preserve slavery.

And now Trump is claiming — against the statistics — that crime in Washington, DC is “out of control.” This is Nixon’s Southern Strategy — blame crime on Black people while turning the country into a police state — on steroids.

Racism is the thread that ties all of this together.

When five Republicans on the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder, Republicans wasted no time enacting voter suppression laws that disproportionately disenfranchised Black voters. When Republicans on the Court blessed partisan gerrymandering in Rucho v. Common Cause, Republican-controlled states immediately redrew maps to diminish the power of Black communities.

This is about keeping power in the hands of white conservatives, no matter the cost to democracy.

And the cruelty isn’t limited to our own citizens. The Trump administration has begun deporting Afghan translators who risked their lives working alongside American troops, even as they continue to apply for legal protection through Special Immigrant Visa programs. ICE agents recently detained one such interpreter — someone who had helped U.S. soldiers survive the war — because the new GOP priority is to get as many brown people out of the country as possible.

This is not patriotism. It’s ethnic cleansing by bureaucracy.

I used to believe that maybe 20 percent of white Americans were openly racist. That was based on my experience growing up and on the way racism was often hidden behind polite code.

But looking at today’s voting patterns, at the cheering crowds for Trump’s open bigotry, it seems more like 55 to 60 percent. When a majority of white voters willingly support a party that strips voting rights from Black citizens, erases slavery from classrooms and museums, fires Black leaders from government, and deports brown allies, that’s not a fringe problem. That’s a national crisis.

This kind of “othering” of racial and gender minorities is a classic hallmark of fascism. It’s what we saw in Germany in the 1930s and what Viktor Orbán and Vladimir Putin are doing in Hungary and Russia today. You dehumanize groups of people, define them as enemies of the state, and then strip away their rights until they no longer have the power to resist.

Trump and the GOP are running this playbook right out in the open. And far too many in the media are still treating “anti-woke” rhetoric as a culture-war issue instead of what it really is: a naked declaration of racism, misogyny, and authoritarian intent.

Democrats and people of good conscience cannot let this language go unchallenged.

Every time Republicans sneer about “woke,” it should be called what it is: they’re defending racism and misogyny. They’re trying to drag us back into a world where straight white men hold all the power and everyone else is erased. This is not just an ideological disagreement. It is an attack on the very idea of equality and democracy.

Woke people must stop playing defense and start organizing. We need mass mobilizations — marches, protests, and direct action — to show that Americans will not tolerate a return to white supremacy dressed up as patriotism.

We need to pressure Democrats to go on offense, to stop using mealy-mouthed language and start telling the truth: the GOP is running on racism, period.

And we need to demand that the media stop laundering Republican talking points and call out this agenda for what it is: a fascist project to make racism great again.

The stakes are nothing less than the future of American democracy. If we fail to rise to this challenge, they won’t just win the next election; they’ll win the power to define who counts as an American, whose stories matter, and who has a right to belong.

This is the GOP’s vision of MAGAstan: a land where truth is outlawed, history is erased, dissent is punished, and democracy is reduced to a hollow slogan.

It’s not conservatism. It’s not patriotism. It is the same naked pursuit of power through racism, misogyny, and authoritarian rule that we’ve seen in one country after another throughout history.

And here’s the brutal truth: they’re telling us exactly who they are and exactly what kind of dictatorship they want.

The only question left is whether the rest of us will stand by in silence while America is dragged into its darkest chapter or whether we will rise up, speak out, and refuse to let our country become the authoritarian nightmare Trump and the GOP are building in plain sight.

This article confirms in spades my contention that "anti-woke" is merely a euphemism for outright hatred and bigotry!

What really breaks my heart is this: "I used to believe that maybe 20 percent of white Americans were openly racist. That was based on my experience growing up and on the way racism was often hidden behind polite code.

But looking at today’s voting patterns, at the cheering crowds for Trump’s open bigotry, it seems more like 55 to 60 percent. When a majority of white voters willingly support a party that strips voting rights from Black citizens, erases slavery from classrooms and museums, fires Black leaders from government, and deports brown allies, that’s not a fringe problem. That’s a national crisis."

I feel the same way. When Obama was elected President I was elated, thinking that perhaps my beloved country was, at last, really turning the corner against hateful bigotry and racism, because a Black man was elected and even reelected for a second term. Alas, his election seems to have reawakened the latent racism still resident in the hearts of too many of us--the very blackest and most evil thread running our otherwise promising and potentially admirable history!

Shame on anyone who still supports this aspiring, evil tyrant!

And thanks to HoH for initiating a most appropriate and relevant thread in which to include this article!

[Some Schmo]

How did Cracker Barrel ‘go woke’?

Hound is a trolling moron and a racist.

Succinct and perfectly on-point. Exactly what I needed to hear from someone else.

Good to see you, Veritas.