Tennessee hat store loses business partner after posting patch resembling Star of David
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A Tennessee hat store has lost a partnership after posting a photo of a patch resembling a Star of David bearing the words “not vaccinated.”
HatWRKS, a Nashville store run by hatmaker Gigi Gaskins, lost at least one partnership after the Tennessee retailer posted a now-deleted photo of its owner wearing the patch, which it then described as “great” with a “strong adhesive back” in its Instagram caption.
“As a result of the offensive content and opinions shared by HatWRKS in Nashville, Stetson and our distribution partners will cease the sale of all Stetson products,” the John B. Stetson Company tweeted Saturday night.
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Other companies are distancing themselves from HatWRKS, with Goorin Bros., a hat company based out of San Francisco, saying the company was “horrified by the display and selling of the Jewish badge by HatWRKS.”
“To make a mockery of the Holocaust in any form is unacceptable and completely insensitive. We are looking at all options to fix and address this unfortunate circumstance,” the company added.
Gaskins has since posted about the situation three times on Instagram, saying on Friday there is a “historical parallel to fascism to be drawn” and that “we can only fight back to not relive history.”
In a Saturday post, she “sincerely apologize[d] for any insensitivity.”
“In NO WAY did I intend to trivialize the Star of David or disrespect what happened to millions of people. That is not who I am & what I stand for. My intent was not to exploit or make a profit,” she wrote. “My hope was to share my genuine concern & fear, and to do all that I can to make sure that nothing like that ever happens again.”
The controversy comes amid fallout from recent remarks by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who also compared COVID-19 protocols to the Holocaust. On May 21, Greene said Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s requirement that House members continue wearing masks until they could prove their COVID-19 vaccination status was “exactly the type of abuse” as “a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star, and they were definitely treated like second-class citizens.”
After receiving widespread criticism for the remarks, Greene doubled down, citing progressive Democrats’ support for Palestinians during the Israel-Hamas escalation as evidence the “Jihad Squad” is “supporting terrorist Hamas.”
“At a time when the Socialist Democrats and the Jihad Squad are supporting terrorist Hamas, and their supporters are attacking Jewish people on the streets of America, it’s never been more important than now to stand up against forced vaccinations and mask mandates that the Left is using to discriminate against Americans who refuse to comply,” Greene said. “Their attempts to shame, ostracize, and brand Americans who choose not to get vaccinated or wear a mask are reminiscent of the great tyrants of history who did the same to those who would not comply.”
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While several right-leaning states, such as South Dakota, Arizona, Texas, and Florida, have moved to ban vaccine passports, others, including New York, Hawaii, and Illinois, have moved toward mandating proof of vaccination before people can participate in certain activities.
More than 33 million cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed in the United States, and more than 50% of the total population has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Tags: News, stars, Nashville, Tennessee, anti-Semitism
Original Author: Carly Roman
Original Location: Tennessee hat store loses business partner after posting patch resembling Star of David