A close family friend that I’ve known for over 40 years posted a photo with her grandson. I don’t think that she knows it, but he is making a white power/racist symbol with his right hand. I took a snippet of the photo.
Would you tell her about it or say nothing?
I’d possible say, I noticed in your photo he appears to be…
I’d possible say, I noticed in your photo he appears to be…
This.
How old is the kid?
I’d possible say, I noticed in your photo he appears to be…
This.
How old is the kid?
Based on a comment - he is 27.
Flash him the sign next time you see him and see what he does.
Flash him the sign next time you see him and see what he does.
I know her two daughters, but don’t know him. I was looking for him in her FB friends to see if the has posts that might shed some light but couldn’t find him. If I showed the full photo of him, you would probably say that I’m not misinterpreting what he’s doing.
You sure he’s not just practicing his air guitar?
Joking, if he’s 27 it’s likely he knows what that gesture means today. Though my son (20 y/o) and his friends do actually play the old “two for looking” game with that gesture. But I don’t think the’ve every bene photo’d doing it, it’s a spur of the moment thing.
Couple years ago, a staff member did exactly that in a group shot that was taken for and landed on the health system main web page.
Didn’t take very long to get noticed, removed, and major email circulation from the admin. Not exactly sure what happened to him, major reprimand versus fired.
I went ahead and sent her a message saying that I didn’t think she notice it, but he was flashing a sign that is sometimes used by white power.
She said “it is also a symbol for asshole, and he was being one”.
Sigh, I thought this had run its course like the Tide pod challenge.
Might be worth politely bringing up in case it wasn’t an accident. If he was the one posting it and it was just him or his friends … whatever. But having your grandmother unknowingly propagate it on social media is a shitty thing to do.
You sure it’s a white power thing and not the thing where you get a punch for looking at it (what is that called… “the circle game”, maybe?)
Guys I used to train with (I know, BLeP) used to play that game all the time.
ETA - Circle Game
Never heard of this as a racist symbol, but I have seen it often used as part of the “circle game” as WelshinPhilly described.
Never heard of this as a racist symbol, but I have seen it often used as part of the “circle game” as WelshinPhilly described.
I’ve never heard of the circle game (despite being a child of the era, according to the link), but it doesn’t sound like something you’d play while posing for a photo with your grandmother.
The racist version is newer - some kids on 4chan decided to use it as a prank white power symbol (“W” and “P” kind of fitting), hoping to provoke an overreaction from the “liberal media,” and start a frenzy. Which it pretty much achieved that goal. Problem is that along the way lots of actual white supremacists joined in on the “liberal media trolling.” So it’s impossible to say who is an actual racist and who is just trolling.
Either way, in a picture with your grandmother is also not a great place to troll, because then everyone who notices will wonder where on the spectrum between troll and racist he and/or the family is.
Or it could be just practicing for the Circle Game…or practicing for that dive certificational final exam by running through all the hand signals.
You sure it’s a white power thing and not the thing where you get a punch for looking at it (what is that called… “the circle game”, maybe?)
Guys I used to train with (I know, BLeP) used to play that game all the time.
ETA - Circle Game
This
You sure it’s a white power thing and not the thing where you get a punch for looking at it (what is that called… “the circle game”, maybe?)
Guys I used to train with (I know, BLeP) used to play that game all the time.
ETA - Circle Game
As with Trail, I had never heard of the circle game until this became a thing. The grandson could be playing the circle game and I could be wrong - which is one reason that I didn’t post more of the photo.
This is from the ADL website - https://www.adl.org/resources/hate-symbol/okay-hand-gesture
I would be happy to be mistaken, but since there are some people who do use the symbol as a white power sign, I thought that it would be good to let my friend know. What she does with that information is her business and I dropped it after mentioning it.
My high school students still play this and have a jolly good time punching each other for looking.
You sure it’s a white power thing and not the thing where you get a punch for looking at it (what is that called… “the circle game”, maybe?)
Guys I used to train with (I know, BLeP) used to play that game all the time.
ETA - Circle Game
This
So the suggestion is that a game of Circle Game was going on - maybe the 27 y.o. playing with some off-camera kids while hanging with grandma - and the camera just happened to pick it up?
I suppose Rick can let us know if that’s possible given the context of the photo as a whole.
She said “it is also a symbol for asshole, and he was being one”.
Kurt Vonnegut had a better symbol
.
Keep in mind that I have a few relatives who look like this, so maybe I’m a bit influenced because of the ones that I know are racist.
You sure it’s a white power thing and not the thing where you get a punch for looking at it (what is that called… “the circle game”, maybe?)
Guys I used to train with (I know, BLeP) used to play that game all the time.
ETA - Circle Game
This
So the suggestion is that a game of Circle Game was going on - maybe the 27 y.o. playing with some off-camera kids while hanging with grandma - and the camera just happened to pick it up?
I suppose Rick can let us know if that’s possible given the context of the photo as a whole.
The whole point of games are to enforce the rules of the game amongst the friends in the group. Not to have some kind of odd putting it in photos thing.
So, we know what’s going on here.
If someone is “trolling”, even if they’re not doing an actual WP thing because they’re a WP person then being a troll about it means you’re still a pretty shit person. All the chucklefucks going around thinking shits funny to do just to get a rise out of people. Thing is our household had a phrase growing up “don’t drive another to sin” by your own actions. In other words, don’t be a douche troll and don’t be a self righteous prick either.