Video of Donald Trump’s MAGA rally on Friday shows a supporter standing in the crowd behind the president repeatedly making a hand gesture commonly used by the Proud Boys and other white supremacist groups.
The “OK” hand symbol is included in the Anti-Defamation League’s database of hate symbols used by white supremacists and other far-right extremists.
It wasn’t a furtive gesture; the man defiantly looks straight ahead flashing the racist symbol for about fifteen seconds. The man felt comfortable making the racist symbol, after all he was standing behind a racist buffoon who tacitly supports white supremacists.
It’s ironic that a gesture commonly used by people around the world to indicate that everything is OK has been appropriated by racists, an indication that everything is not OK in the world’s greatest democracy. Only in the Trump era would a gesture that indicates that everything is copacetic be used as a symbol of white supremacy.
Needless to say, Trump hasn’t denounced his supporter for flashing a racist symbol, he’d be loath to alienate racists who are an integral part of his base.
When Joe Biden wins in a landslide, I will make the OK sign to signify that everything is once again normal in America.