Black Rifle Coffee Co. Distances Itself from Extremist
Far Right
July 21 - 2021
Coffee Geography Magazine
Black RifleCoffee Co. is well known for its proud America slogan attached to
its trademark. Now some right wing groups are furious with the combat
veteran-owned coffee company after founders attempted to distance themselves
from the extremists who have in recent years adopted their brand and
message. The company uses primarily Ethiopian Arabica premium coffee in
its products.
Recently
Black Rifle Coffee Co. announced to the media that it denounced the Proud Boys
and other violent white nationalist groups that have “hijacked” the company’s
brand.
Black
Rifle Coffee Co. was founded in 2014 by a group of veterans who served in
Afghanistan and Iraq. Lately, the Salt Lake City-based company that hosts
retail stores in San Antonio and Boerne has become popular among
conservative groups and far-right leaders thanks to its pro-firearm,
pro-military and pro-police branding.
Kyle
Rittenhouse, the Illinois teenager charged in the fatal shootings of two people
at a Black Lives Matter protest in Wisconsin last summer, wore the company’s
T-shirt after he bonded out of jail. Some of the rioters who stormed the
Capitol on Jan. 6 were decked out in apparel from two San Antonio companies
— Black Rifle Coffee Co. and Grunt Style.
The
founder of the company, Evan Hafer said “The racism really pisses me off. I hate
racist, Proud Boy-ish people. Like, I’ll pay them to leave my customer base. I
would gladly chop all those people out of my customer database and pay them to
get the out.”
Several
conservative publications accused Black Rifle of “going woke” and throwing
“customers under the bus. Others falsely claimed that the company’s owners
called its customers “a repugnant group of people.”
Black
Rifle Coffee Company did not immediately respond to a phone call by Coffee
Geography Magazine requesting comment.