Over the weekend, Democratic Senate runoff candidate Jon Ossoff visited Black-owned vegan restaurant Slutty Vegan in Atlanta during a tour to support small businesses. Despite the fact that Republicans often champion themselves as fighters for small businesses, current Georgia Sen. David Perdue’s campaign decided it was a good look to mock the senator’s opponent for eating a vegan burger by posting a photo of Perdue and his wife sitting over a plate of Waffle House’s good-old American non-veggies because, for whatever reason, that’s the right-wing version of a flex.
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Perdue’s campaign retweeted a post from CNN political reporter Donald “DJ” Judd.
“Back in Atlanta, Democratic candidate for Senate Jon Ossoff kicks off a Small Business Saturday tour with a stop at Slutty Vegan, a vegan burger joint,” Judd wrote accompanied by a photo array of Ossoff’s visit. “‘We got Jon Jon running for Senate in the building!’ a staffer calls out as Ossoff enters, prompting cheers.”
Perdue’s campaign posted a photo of Perdue and his wife sitting in what looks like the Waffle Housiest Waffle House in the Atlanta area, aka Waffle House, Georgia. The caption on the photo reads, “@ossoff can have the plant burger, we’ll take the all-star special. Pick your side, Georgia.”
First of all: For those who don’t know, Slutty Vegan is a vegan burger joint that first opened in 2018 and has since opened two additional locations in Atlanta. The restaurant’s founder and CEO is Pinky Cole, a Black woman who started out “making moves from her two-bedroom apartment in July of 2018, selling Slutty Vegan’s signature burgers fresh to order via Instagram…yep, Instagram!” according to the restaurant’s website.
I suppose we can’t just jump to the assumption that Perdue’s campaign knew Slutty Vegan is a Black-owned business or that it had anything to do with the Perdue platform being used to throw shade at the burger chain.
Then again, Perdue definitely knew how to pronounce the name of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris—who he served with on the Senate Budget Committee for years—but still opted to woo his racist-ass constituents by referring to her as, “Kah-mah-la or Kah-ma-la or Kamala-mala-mala, I don’t know, whatever.”
But even if racism had nothing to do with the campaign’s post, why go after a small business in favor of a large restaurant chain like Waffle House? It’s especially hypocritical given that, in August, Perdue called small businesses “the backbone of our economy” during a small business roundtable the senator hosted in Smyrna, Ga.
Also, for people who champion themselves as the anti-snowflake, conservatives sure do seem to be offended by the very idea of veganism. Imagine a campaign seeing a man minding his own business and eating a vegan burger as an opportunity to attack a political opponent.
And what’s with all this “pick your side, Georgia” shit? Only in the out-of-touch Republican mind are vegans and meat-eaters the Capulets and Montagues of the runoff electorate. Imagine seeing an opponent eating much healthier than you as a reason to go full gang gang.
Seriously, has the Perdue campaign just officially come out as pro-heart disease, or nah?
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