Officials looking into ‘white power’ hand signs at Army-Navy football game
Military officials say they are looking into why Army and Navy academy students flashed the “OK” hand sign on live TV during the Army-Navy football game — a gesture that has become associated with “white power.”
West Point cadets and Naval Academy midshipmen made the signal during the ESPN pregame broadcast on Saturday.
“We’re looking into it. I don’t know what their intention is,” Lt. Col. Chris Ophardt, a spokesperson for the prestigious academy at West Point in New York, told the Wall Street Journal.
Cmdr. Alana Garas, a spokesperson for the US Naval Academy, in Annapolis, Maryland, said: “We are aware and will be looking into it.”
I wonder what the cadet next to @CollegeGameDay host @ReceDavis feels about the love from his brother cadet? @KwikWarren@TeaPainUSA #collegegameday pic.twitter.com/kFFDVBESqA
— Jeff Van Hoeven (@BigKahunaVan) December 14, 2019
The gesture, which looks like a sign for “OK” with the thumb and forefinger touching to make a circle, has recently become a symbol used by white supremacists, in part because of its ambiguity, according to the Anti-Defamation League.
The self-proclaimed white supremacist accused of slaughtering 51 worshipers in mass shootings at two separate mosques in New Zealand in March made the gesture in court.
Last year, the Coast Guard reprimanded an officer who flashed the sign during an MSNBC live TV segment.