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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsUS service academies say hand gestures at Army-Navy game were a game and not racist
The US Naval Academy and US Military Academy at West Point said Friday that the hand gesture some cadets and midshipmen were seen making on camera was part of a game known as the "circle game" and not a white supremacist symbol.
The circle game is commonly played when a person forms an "OK" with their hand below their waist to trick a second person into looking at it. If the second person is caught looking at the hand gesture, that person is then punched by the person who made the gesture.
The academies were investigating to see if the cadets and midshipmen were making a sign that can be associated with white nationalism, which is someone forming the "OK" sign with their fingers and thumb to symbolize the letters "WP" -- which stands for white power.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/20/politics/naval-academy-hand-gesture/index.html
Right
dewsgirl
(14,961 posts)Va Lefty
(6,252 posts)Hortensis
(58,785 posts)while some would be using the game as an opportunity to "get away" with racist double meaning.
I'm very glad to hear what the investigation turned up. A class full of budding Nazi types would be very strange and alarming. They'd have to have been chosen for bad character, right? And national attention on this means media are looking at it also. If there is any coverup, it won't last. Good, decent students will be telling their families, friends, and media what they know.
jayfish
(10,038 posts)if they could get away with throwing up racist signs?
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)InAbLuEsTaTe
(24,122 posts)Blue_true
(31,261 posts)The symbol can also mean "I am ok with the world", Tom Brady and Ron Gronskowski used it after their recent Super Bowl win, Brady's best friend on the Patriots is Benjamin Watson, his former tight end who recently returned to the team after years away, Watson is Black.
We can take the symbol back from white supremacist by taking time to understand why a person used it. Was it racist, it was it inspirational. White supremacist have the upper hand now because they know that we are likely to over react, that gives them a sense of power.
Cosmocat
(14,560 posts)Everyone is facing the same direction.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)I view what they were doing as innocent, though very ignorant. If they had kept themselves informed on modern trends, they would have realized what the symbol had come to mean. I view the situation as a chance for the service academies to reguire civics classes each semester where current societal events are discussed in detail, kids can't just learn about warfare techniques with no mention of the societies that they ,and later, their kids will live in.
Cosmocat
(14,560 posts)come on ...
Just not even remotely plausible.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)I also don't see things that are explainable as something which they may have not been.
If I was the Academy director, each of those kids would get punished and have a file added to their records, but I would not kick them out.
exboyfil
(17,862 posts)Really. What was it with dropping the trash as well.
walkingman
(7,591 posts)redstatebluegirl
(12,265 posts)Or his little troll Stephen Smith.
hlthe2b
(102,191 posts)C_U_L8R
(44,996 posts)Everyone knows.
FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)BamaRefugee
(3,483 posts)Lynching was a "game" too, not unlike football, big crowd gathers and screams and yells, brings the kids to start them in on the traditions beloved by all the townfolk. Great fun for the whole family, go home tired but happy.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,309 posts)When caught, deny the racism and substitute "game".
Cosmocat
(14,560 posts)htf can they trick some one into looking at their cock, then punch them, if no one is facing them?
blugbox
(951 posts)In the article, they even explain how the game is played... and that isn't what is happening on screen!
Loki Liesmith
(4,602 posts)Made you look!
Your turn! This is good clean fuuuuun!
Marengo
(3,477 posts)XRubicon
(2,212 posts)marble falls
(57,060 posts)cwydro
(51,308 posts)Someone actually pushed his hand down, which is interesting.
RandiFan1290
(6,227 posts)your continued defense of the hand gesture.
XRubicon
(2,212 posts)Who's turn is it? Brenton Tarrant or David Duke?
greatauntoftriplets
(175,729 posts)Midnight Writer
(21,734 posts)FakeNoose
(32,613 posts)Nobody is buying their stupid story.
Wawannabe
(5,641 posts)Loosin it! Why is that so funny? OMG!
somaticexperiencing
(312 posts)crickets
(25,959 posts)tblue37
(65,269 posts)Wawannabe
(5,641 posts)Whatever. This is bullshit to the enth degree!
bluestarone
(16,894 posts)I wonder if he belonged to any group? That's what i would have done.
MineralMan
(146,281 posts)RestoreAmerica2020
(3,435 posts)It was done in jest, boys will be boys kinda of thing--bullshit! It IS the racist kkknazi power sign. Try doing it, it is an awkward unnatural skewing of hand and fingers not just the ok sign. ADL [Anti-Defamation League] and Southern Poverty Law Center have same sign listed as a hate symbol.
Kingofalldems
(38,440 posts)old guy
(3,283 posts)marble falls
(57,060 posts)RockRaven
(14,950 posts)The old "we investigated ourself and found nothing" never goes over well...
cwydro
(51,308 posts)And these innocent little boys certainly knew that this stupid game would give them complete deniability.
WestLosAngelesGal
(268 posts)So much covering up.
cachukis
(2,231 posts)Is passe. My students ran it in the halls. No longer played in high school in my town, Tampa. I would say excuse is bogus.
Efilroft Sul
(3,578 posts)Stinky The Clown
(67,776 posts)RhodeIslandOne
(5,042 posts)Apparently our servicemen are so stupid they believe they can punch viewers in the nuts via the television.
Cosmocat
(14,560 posts)Pretty hard to trick people into looking at your cock and then punch them if ... everyone is standing in stadium seeting facing the same directiion.
Response to Cosmocat (Reply #48)
ChubbyStar This message was self-deleted by its author.
Tertullian
(46 posts)We need honest leadership in our armed forces, NOT cover-ups and lies.
Demonaut
(8,914 posts)TeamPooka
(24,216 posts)Sneederbunk
(14,286 posts)TomSlick
(11,096 posts)Back in the day, I was taught that when you screwed-up, the only correct answer was "No excuse, sir."
Of course, in my day, cadets were taught that the essence of being an officer was Duty and Honor. Then again, I was an ROTC cadet at a state college. Maybe things are different at West Point.
Can any West Point alum clarify?
Liberal In Texas
(13,542 posts)you have a racist problem.
KPN
(15,641 posts)explanation would be laughable it it wasnt so vile.
dware
(12,325 posts)and I don't for a second believe it, these cadets brought shame and dishonor to their respective academies and should be expelled and discharged from the military.
KentuckyWoman
(6,679 posts)It is an embarrassment that the leaders of these institutions will protect this crap instead of punish it to the point these types are pushed out and stop coming.
Takket
(21,550 posts)And we are all the suckers.
mfcorey1
(11,001 posts)Excuses are tools of the incompetent
which create monuments
of nothingness.
Those who specialize in them
are seldom good in anything
.
-Author Unknown-
Captain Stern
(2,201 posts)What makes it even sadder than it already is......is they had time to 'find' a reason (made up excuse), and this was the best they could do.
spanone
(135,803 posts)mahina
(17,637 posts)That would prove they were idiots too. This just adds racism.