O.K. Hand Sign Added To Anti- Defamation League's List Of Hate Symbols

[appalachiablue]

Source: NY Times

The bowl-shaped haircut worn by the white supremacist who killed nine black worshipers in Charleston, S.C., stands among the most disturbing and distinctive images that extremists have shared online. Others include letters drawn from the ancient runic alphabet -- a particular favorite among neo-Nazis -- or slogans like "Diversity equals White genocide."

They are among the many symbols, slogans and memes that white supremacists are deploying as propaganda and which are drawing more scrutiny amid a broader effort to curtail extremist violence in the United States. On Thursday, the Anti-Defamation League is adding 36 entries to its longstanding online catalog of extremist symbols, many of which are built around racist stereotypes that have been spread about African Americans and Jews.

About 10 of them are the logos of extremist organizations. Several others are numeric codes that can carry hidden messages, like the numbers 109 or 110, anti-Semitic shorthand that claims that Jews have been expelled from 109 countries and that the United States should become the 110th. Hate symbols have long historical roots, including the white hoods and the cross burnings of the Ku Klux Klan that were meant to convey both menace and power. As with most aspects of the internet age, however, these insignia now emerge at an accelerated pace and reach a far wider audience, according to experts.

"This stuff has been going on for a long time, but what you are seeing now is more of it, a more rapid evolution," said Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a professor of education and sociology at American University who focuses on cultural aspects of far-right youth extremism. - MORE...


Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ok-hand-sign-added-to-anti-defamation-leagues-list-of-hate-symbols/ar-AAHS1Mo?ocid=HPCOMMDHP15

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A member of a far right white supremacist group holds a bible and makes the 'O.K.' hand sgn.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. This is causing me severe behavior modification

in my household growing up, we always used it. It never meant anything racial or hateful, it was just ok, okay? At worst it derived from Old Kinderhook. I've used it many times as an adult, pre-2010. Now I have to think hard not to put the old subconscious learned behaviors in non-thinking mode. Help me extinguish this copastetic habit!

[Loki Liesmith]

7. I ain't planning on stopping it.

[customerserviceguy]

9. Me, either

A small group of assholes doesn't get to own something that millions of people have used for decades.

[Owl]

13. Same here.

[Bradical79]

16. It's clear from context anyway which it is, imo -nt

[The Mouth]

20. A small group of assholes doesn't get to own something that millions of people have used for decades

Needs to be said again and AGAIN.

The problem is the suckers who let themselves be (con)trolled

It *does* mean something rather obscene in *other* cultures

but letting the Nazis set the agenda is a losing proposition.

[Raine]

21. Same here

I'm sick to death of giving up what's mine because of what others use it for!

[BumRushDaShow]

18. What has happened is that "OK" (okay) has been replaced with "thumbs up"

which basically is synonymous now as an affirmation like "I agree" or "Got it"... and that thumb gesture has lent itself to being an easy, non-verbal statement usable as both a hand gesture and as an easily identifiable symbol for social media. It can also be expanded to portray the opposite ("I disagree" or "No good" ) by reversing the direction of the thumb. That left the "OK" (orl korrect) symbol as something that has rapidly been deprecated (and obviously appropriated).

[Igel]

23. Anytime you make any claim about anything linguistic

you *have* to say in which speech community.

McWhorter did himself significant harm when he opined that today, in the US, "thug" was a derogatory term for "young male black" and it was obsolete in the term "petty criminal bully".

It took few seconds for a lot of people to say he was wrong. To find examples used by white people referring to white people. Or Latinos. Or Chinese. Today. Last year. Last decade. Linguists are typically (a) fairly outspoken when it comes to race, you have to be pretty cynical and outrageously revolutionary to say much disparaging about the community as a whole, and in fact it's easy to be disparaging over their political and sociological naivete rooted in an imposed egalitarian ideological framework; (b) fairly rabid when it comes to sound linguistic theory.

He was found to be set in his stupidity when he responded that these were really only "old people" using the term, meaning that it really was obsolete except for a few holdouts. Then the "old people" turned out to be 20 or 30 years younger than him in many cases.

He was finally forced to retreat and define his f-ing speech community, which was rather diverse, but all educated, fairly well versed in the rhetoric of anti-racist theory, and disproportionately of color--not that *they* used the term, but that's how they insisted *others*, "those people," used the term.

Of course, as soon as he defined and delimited the speech community, he was accurate. On the other hand, his point, which could only be made by saying that the speech norms of a small group were normative for the much larger default group, was completely untenable. (Of course, he insinuated that the only reason people forced him to essentially recant was because he was black, upon which a lot of examples of people trashing whites, Latinos, and Asians who made the same linguistically naive logical error.)

A separate, less "correct" wing pointed out that this is a way of trying to assert power. There's this view if you control speech you control thought--Whorfian approaches would say that if there's no word, there can't be the referent--and there's a lot of attempts to control speech.

[BumRushDaShow]

24. In this case, we are talking hand gesture "symbols" as linquistic euphemisms

not necessarily linguistic (oral) terminology.

For example as an analogy in a similar historic sense, was the co-opting of the "V" for "Victory" hand sign - which was morphed into what? The "Peace" sign -





And another analogy - what is apparently called "the sign of the horns", which has been used by both the old school funk artists and the metal artists (but also has specific meanings depending in non-western cultures) -





And the use of both the above AND the "OK" hand gesture, are all also being used by the current young hip hop artists and their fans (including one of my young nieces )

[spike jones]

2. And Trump is ruining the thumbs up sign too. n/t

[Beakybird]

3. That ok ain't ok!

How many Trump chumps have used that sign? Even at Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing!

[Gore1FL]

4. I swear to Goddess...

There is nothing those fuckers won't co-opt and ruin.

[keithbvadu2]

5. Means 'asshole' in some countries.

Means 'asshole' in some countries.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=brazil+hand+sign+for+asshole

[keithbvadu2]

6. Coward uses the flag to hide behind.

Coward uses the flag to hide behind.

[truthisfreedom]

8. The moment they spread their fingers you know it's WP

Not okay. Okay has the fingers tight together.

[TygrBright]

10. But we always made the "okay" sign with the thumb touching the MIDDLE finger...

What is this with the thumb-index finger circle? That's never been the "okay" sign!

"Okay" is a circle of the thumb and middle finger!

Isn't it....?

It always was in our neighborhood...

bewilderedly,
Bright

[Owl]

14. Always been with the index finger that I have ever seen.

[Codeine]

25. I've never seen it that way.

Funny little regional differences are always interesting.

[snort]

11. Their symbol should be a closed hand pointing down

with little finger extended to represent their tiny dicks.

[RandiFan1290]

12. Now the trolls that once used the ADL as cover change their tune. nt

[McCamy Taylor]

15. Isn't this sign language?

[Marthe48]

17. We hosted out first exchange student in 1994

My husband and I learned that the okay hand sign means something obscene in many cultures. We had used the ok sign our whole lives, but in order to avoid offending the students we met, we trained ourselves to use the thumbs up gesture. We had a few slips, but the student and her friends knew we were changing our habits.

[nykym]

19. And if you are in Brazil

Sometimes nonverbal communication can be very different than what is expected in other countries. One example is the “O.K.” symbol one can make with their hands. It is regarded as just meaning “O.K.” in the American culture. In Brazil however, this is seen as a very obscene gesture. It is equivalent to giving the middle finger in America. This is seen as one of the rudest gestures you can make in Brazil and should always be avoided.

https://hispanic-marketing.com/the-meaning-of-gestures-body-language-in-brazil/

[Archae]

22. My sister took a trip to Greece...

Holding a hand up to say "stop" or "hold on a bit," in Greece is "shit in your face."