Nashville store apologises after being slammed for selling ‘not vaccinated’ Star of David badges

A hat shop in Nashville, Tennessee has apologised for selling yellow Star of David badges, similar to what Jewish people had to wear in Nazi Germany, reading ‘not vaccinated’.

On Friday an image circulated on social media from an Instagram account for the HatWRKS store of a smiling woman wearing the badge. The caption for the image said: “Patches are here. They turned out great. $5 each. Strong adhesive back...we’ll be offering trucker caps soon.” The image has since been deleted.

After the picture went viral, the shop was reportedly inundated with furious messages criticising the store and branding this particular piece of merchandise antisemitic and that they were “ashamed” to have previously given custom to the store.

Despite deleting the image, the store did try to defend its position, questioning why so many people were outraged at the post when they should be more “outraged at the tyranny the world is experiencing.”

The store followed this up with another Instagram post which said that the current Covid restrictions have a “historical parallel to fascism.” Controversial Republican congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene recently drew criticism after she attempted to compare vaccinations to the Holocaust.

The HatWRKS account features many anti-vaccination posts and images claiming that Covid-19 is a hoax. It also features an image and quote from the British conspiracy theorist David Icke who was banned from Twitter in 2020 for spreading misinformation about the pandemic.

HatWRKS, which is reportedly run by Gigi Gaskins, has since apologised for using the Star of David and that they had no intention of trivializing the religious symbol.

The New York Post reports that on Saturday the store was hit with protesters directly outside who held up signs reading “No Nazis in Nashville.” Several partners to the store had also announced that they would no longer be doing business with them.

A resistance against Covid safety measures and vaccines has been a constant presence amongst the conservative and right wing movements in the United States during the last year.