--- title: Woman's 'America Was Never Great' Hat Sparks Online Fury description: A photograph of a Staten Island Home Depot worker wearing a hat that reads "America Was Never Great" has sparked an online storm canonical: https://time.com/4341266/hat-america-never-great-online-shaming-viral/ author: Mark Rivett-Carnac article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-19T06:35:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:32:31.833Z og:title: Woman's 'America Was Never Great' Hat Sparks Online Fury og:description: Krystal Lake has been targeted with dozens of death threats and racist abuse og:url: https://time.com/4341266/hat-america-never-great-online-shaming-viral/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Woman's 'America Was Never Great' Hat Sparks Online Fury twitter:description: Krystal Lake has been targeted with dozens of death threats and racist abuse twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # A Woman Got Dozens of Death Threats for Wearing a Hat Saying 'America Was Never Great' by [Mark Rivett-Carnac](https://time.com/author/mark-rivett-carnac/) ## Mark Rivett-Carnac May 19, 2016 6:35 AM UTC by [Mark Rivett-Carnac](https://time.com/author/mark-rivett-carnac/) ## Mark Rivett-Carnac May 19, 2016 6:35 AM UTC A photograph of a Home Depot worker wearing a hat that reads “America Was Never Great” [drew outrage](http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/05/home%5Fdepot-workers%5Famerica%5Fwas%5Fnever%5Fgreat%5Fhat.html) and sparked death threats and racial vilification when it went viral on Wednesday. Krystal Lake said it was the only time she wore the hat to work at the store’s Staten Island branch was shocked by the frenzy it caused, according to local news source SILive.com. The phrase parodies Donald Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again,” which is emblazoned on hats worn by the presumptive Republican presidential nominee and his supporters. Lake said the hat was meant to suggest that America “needs changing and improvement,” according to SILive.com. “I know there are a lot of opportunities here,” Lake said, “I just wish we would worry about making America better_,_ not ‘great again.’” Despite her intentions, Lake said she has received dozens of death threats and racist abuse for expressing her political views. \[[_SILive_](http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/05/home%5Fdepot-workers%5Famerica%5Fwas%5Fnever%5Fgreat%5Fhat.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4341266/hat-america-never-great-online-shaming-viral/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4341266/hat-america-never-great-online-shaming-viral/"},"headline":"A Woman Got Dozens of Death Threats for Wearing a Hat Saying 'America Was Never Great'","datePublished":"2016-05-19T06:35:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:32:31.833Z","description":"Krystal Lake has been targeted with a storm of online hatred and abuse","url":"https://time.com/4341266/hat-america-never-great-online-shaming-viral/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","controversy","Parody","Donald Trump","staten island"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mark Rivett-Carnac","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/mark-rivett-carnac/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4341266/hat-america-never-great-online-shaming-viral/","name":"A Woman Got Dozens of Death Threats for Wearing a Hat Saying 'America Was Never Great'"}}]}] ```