Military Investigating Suspected ‘White Power’ Hand Gestures Flashed at Game

The gesture, which looks like an O.K. sign, is formed by “the thumb and forefinger joined together in a circle, the remaining three fingers splayed out behind,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The center, a nonprofit group that monitors hate groups, noted last year that white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Klansmen “have increasingly begun using the use of the symbol both to signal their presence to the like-minded, as well as to identify potentially sympathetic recruits among young trolling artists flashing it.”

The Anti-Defamation League also described the symbol as a hate sign that forms the letters “WP” for “white power.” Officials of the United States Coast Guard reprimanded a service member who flashed a similar gesture in the background of a television interview on MSNBC last year.

Viewers of the football game on Saturday noticed the gestures and shared clips on social media.

“Please someone tell me I didn’t see what I thought I just saw,” one user wrote on Twitter, asking “white power sign?”

“They are well aware of what they are doing and think it’s funny. Disgusting,” another Twitter user wrote.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/us/army-navy-game-white-supremacy.html?emc=rss&partner=rss