A customer shops for produce at an H-E-B grocery store on February 12, 2025 in Austin, Texas.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Since roughly 2020, the term “woke” has come to encompass a dizzying amount of things. There’s a woke mob, a woke mind virus, and general “wokeness” that, according to the political right, has infected much of American society. And according to some stuff I saw online, it’s even infiltrated a hallowed Texas institution.
That’s right. After spending hours looking at X, it brings me no pleasure to report that H-E-B, the Texas grocery chain, has gone woke. I know, I know. I couldn’t quite believe it either.
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I first learned of this when I came across a post by a blue-check X user called “Dust & Hustle” who posted an AI-generated graphic documenting H-E-B’s supposed descent into gay transgender wokery. H-E-B, according to this user, “isn’t a Texas company anymore.”
We all know what brands like Walmart and Target stand for — corporate sellouts pushing every anti-American, anti-Texas agenda.
But HEB?
They’re the Great Pretenders.
They slap “Texas” on everything, market themselves as the heart and soul of the Lone Star State… while… pic.twitter.com/ANLyDQh5Vx
— Dust & Hustle (@dust_hustle) April 14, 2026
“They’re funding liberal politicians, pushing woke DEI and Pride garbage, importing foreign workers over hardworking Americans, catering to radical Islam, and destroying our Texas values,” Dust & Hustle wrote.
“Enough pretending. Hit them where it hurts most — their wallets. Boycott HEB. Now,” the post continued. A follow-up post alleged that H-E-B promotes LGBTQ+ Pride and events with drag queens and makes donations to politicians who are “undermining conservatives.” Buc-ee’s, meanwhile, is the True Texan company.
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Following up on my H-E-B post — the one calling out their Pride sponsorships, drag events for families, halal meat partnerships, H-1B visas over American workers, and split political donations that undermine conservative Texas priorities…
Buc-ee’s is the straight-up ANTI-HEB.… pic.twitter.com/Usc7cF3pZ4
— Dust & Hustle (@dust_hustle) April 14, 2026
From here, I went down a rabbit hole of slop X posts created by people who all proclaim themselves to be True Texans, Gen X Mommas and MAGA patriots. It’s unclear what exactly started this campaign to boycott what is easily the most beloved institution in Texas, but it appears to have begun with an X power poster named Isabella Maria DeLuca. DeLuca posted a picture on Sunday of the meat section at an H-E-B store in Melissa, Texas. Featured prominently was a display of various cuts of meat from Crescent Foods, a Halal meat company.
“Insane,” DeLuca wrote. The post racked up hundreds of reposts, with many other blue-checked users expressing dismay. Most of the comments, however, were baffled as to why anyone would care. DeLuca, a New York native, started a Change.org petition asking H-E-B to stop hiring workers using H-1B visas and to stop selling Halal meat. (H-E-B declined to comment on the backlash when Chron reached out.)
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Halal is a practice within Islam that governs daily living. While it applies to a wide range of behaviors, it’s most commonly associated with Halal foods. Muslims are forbidden from eating pork, which is considered haram (not Halal), but may eat other meats provided they are prepared in what they consider a humane way.
That’s it. It’s not going to turn you Muslim if you eat it; it’s not covered in like a weird spice or something. It’s meat prepared according to Islamic tradition for the many Muslims who presumably enjoy eating food and shopping at their local grocery store.
But this was too much for an X user named @Amuse, who is one of the bigger right-wing content creators that the app forces you to see, who reshared the post to his considerably bigger platform. According to him, H-E-B has seen the light of Islam.
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“ISLAMIFICATION,” Amuse began in typical X post fashion. “HEB is rolling out Halal food in supermarkets across the State of Texas due to the massive influx of Islamic migrants and the normalization of Sharia in Texas.”
ISLAMIFICATION: HEB is rolling out Halal food in supermarkets across the State of Texas due to the massive influx of Islamic migrants and the normalization of Sharia in Texas. Crescent Foods is the dominant national halal meat brand founded by Ahmad Adam. @IsabellaMDeLuca pic.twitter.com/7vaRqyLgDV
— @amuse (@amuse) April 13, 2026
But H-E-B isn’t really “rolling out” its partnership with Crescent Foods. Crescent Foods, founded in 1996 by a Muslim entrepreneur, is now one of the nation’s largest Halal food companies and struck a partnership to sell its products at H-E-B stores back in 2022. You’ve been able to buy Halal meat at H-E-B for some time now.
From a business standpoint, it’s a layup. Texas has long been home to a large, diverse Muslim population thanks to high-paying jobs in oil and gas, engineering and finance and a lower cost of living. While there aren’t firm numbers, mosques and religious centers have opened in suburbs and cities around the state. In December, Houston became home to the first Ismaili Muslim center in the United States. A Dallas Muslim activist told the New York Times that Dallas is the “Medina of the U.S.,” a reference to one of Islam’s most sacred cities. Muslims still make up just 2 percent of the Texas population. But as they become more woven into our state’s cultural fabric, presumably H-E-B looked at them and said: “Hey, they spend money, too.”
But in our politically mind-numbing era, nothing is sacred. Texas’ hard-right flank is the strongest in the festering ruins of X and is gripped by a feverish belief that somehow, despite our state government being run by conservative Christians, Texas has been secretly turned into the Islamic Republic of Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott, who is acutely attuned to the musings of the Twitter Addicted, has designated a Muslim advocacy group as a terrorist group and scrutinized the development of a community targeted at Muslims.
This isn’t the first time people have tried to boycott H-E-B. In 2023, some randos on X tried to give H-E-B the Bud Light treatment for making tasteful LGBTQ+ Pride Month bags. At last check, H-E-B appears to still be in business.
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Is anyone going to actually boycott H-E-B for any of this? Probably not. They will all forget, as will you and I will, and move on to the next neurosis that will get them the most content. Such is 21st-century life.