Thread by @AdamRutherford

Well this is interesting. London mayoral candidate and former actor Laurence Fox has adopted the Glass of Milk emoji in his twitter handle. This is commonly used by White Supremacists in a misplaced attempt to indicate racial purity via lactase persistence.

Here's another example from Richard Spencer, described by wikipedia as an 'American neo-Nazi, antisemitic conspiracy theorist, and white supremacist'.

I don't know whether this is Fox's intention or not, but this is a well known code used by White Supremacists.

That image above is taken from a 'milk chugging' video by white nationalists in the US. The idea is that the evolution of the ability to process milk emerged in Europeans during the Neolithic, and the allele that enabled that rapidly spread in European populations.

...therefore - and this is where the racist bullshit factor sneaks in - lactase persistence is indicative of European (read white) purity.

However, it is actually an indicator of populations where dairy farming has been part of their evolution, and equivalent mutations occur in high frequency in Kazakhs, Ethiopians, Tutsi, KhoeSan and Middle Eastern pastoralists.

Some of you are suggesting that it's actually in reference to the MP who is carrying round a carton of milk for some reason. Maybe that is Fox's intention, I have no idea. But I do know that the milk glass emoji is part of White Supremacist coding.

This btw of course is all in detail in my book #HowToArgueWithARacist.

If Laurence Fox's intention is not that of identifying with white nationalists, it is arguably a poor and poorly researched choice.

@CGreenUK @LozzaFox I understand that you are using the milk emoji as some form of protest. You should be aware that for several years it has been indicative of White Supremacy, as per the thread above.

@CGreenUK @LozzaFox I offer this information as a service to prevent misinterpretation of your intentions.