4 ms·
This is also a difficult distinction to draw these days because white supremacist groups specifically choose coded symbols in order to publicly display their al
by thomaslord 6y ago
This is also a difficult distinction to draw these days because white supremacist groups specifically choose coded symbols in order to publicly display their allegiance while maintaining plausible deniability. I think it's tricky to say anyone who makes the "OK" symbol is a racist because there's a long-standing meaning to that symbol that isn't racist, but on some level the same can be said of the numbers "14" or "88" which are more clearly tied to white supremacy. White supremacists count on the fact that, on the surface, no reasonable person can say that using these symbols makes you a racist. Because this is an explicit strategy to grow their numbers while keeping "normies" in the dark, I think it's important to view things like this in that context. Is it possible someone did something innocent and accidentally used a covert symbol of racism? Absolutely. But when you see repetitive uses of those symbols or a person has a long backlog of questionable actions and comments, at some point you have to draw a line.