For three consecutive weekends , hate groups waving swastika flags and throwing up the Nazi salute have made odious appearances around Nashville. They’ve marched through downtown harassing minorities and intimidating passersby, dropped banners over highway overpasses, and disrupted a metro council meeting with vile rhetoric.
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But their July 14 pop-up has been their most nonsensical: assembling in front of a Raising Cane’s chicken tenders restaurant on the corner of Nashville’s Broadway and 3rd Avenue North. Dressed in black T-shirts that read “Pro White” and choosing to show their faces (unlike a recent masked demonstration by members of white supremacist group Patriot Front), the half dozen or so mostly bearded men put on their little show of hate, as signs advertising chicken fingers and dipping sauce lit up behind them. A photo captured by The Tennessean illustrates just how ludicrous the spectacle was.
The downtown location of Raising Cane’s opened to much fanfare — customers lined up in the wee hours to order chicken and get a glimpse of a Johnny Cash tribute inside the restaurant. A little over two weeks after the grand opening, the Nazis set up shop outside for a Sunday afternoon demonstration. Needless to say, Raising Cane’s wasn’t happy about the association.
In an emailed statement to Rolling Stone , the brand essentially said their hands were tied and denounced the hate group. “Unfortunately, those individuals were on public property,” a Raising Cane’s spokesperson said. “While we can’t control where they stand, we vehemently disagree with what they stand for.”
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Raising Cane’s is a Louisiana-based chicken tenders chain that has more than 800 locations around the country. Its slogan is “One Love,” a reference to their devotion to what the company calls “quality chicken finger meals.” Post Malone is such a passionate fan that he asked the restaurant to build a store near his home in Utah and partnered with Raising Cane’s to open a Post Malone- and Dallas Cowboys-themed restaurant in Dallas, Texas, last year.
The brand is also popular with country singers. Hardy performed at the opening of the Broadway location, while Parker McCollum and Cole Swindell have made appearances at other stores. The Texas country artist Koe Wetzel has a tattoo of a Cane’s chicken finger on his thigh.
Nashville continues to deal with a uptick in hate groups, especially in the heart of tourist-friendly downtown. Local journalist Betsy Phillips, who just released the book Dynamite Nashville: Unmasking the FBI, the KKK, and the Bombers Beyond Their Control, about unsolved racially motivated bombings during the civil rights era, wrote in an essay , “Nazis come here because they feel welcome here.” During a recent appearance on the City Cast Nashville podcast, state senator Heidi Campbell said she wasn’t surprised to see the Nazis march downtown: “That’s alarming. But it’s important to understand that Nashville is targeted to be our first big conservative Christian nationalist city.”
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