Let us tell you a little bit about how the hand gesture in front of @kanyewest is tied to white nationalism and the alt-right.
Last year, there was an uproar from the digital community keeping tabs on the spread of white nationalism when a White House intern made the OK symbol we now see in front of @kanyewest. 
Immediately, media outlets sought out to investigate how the digital community had come to these conclusions, given that the OK symbol seemed to be universally tame. washingtontimes.com/news/2017/dec/…
Though the Anti-Defamation League had previously uncovered the Pepe Frog Meme to be tied to white nationalism and declared it a hate symbol, it wasn’t quick to do the same with the OK gesture.
The OK symbol was later unveiled to be a 4Chan trolling campaign aimed at mocking the Left attempting to call out white nationalism on the digital front. However, it’s much more complicated than that now, given the ties of the symbol to a specific hateful agenda.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (@splcenter) even did an analysis on this and its possible ties to an islamophobic militia movement in Georgia. splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017…
Whether this began as a trolling ploy or not, a legitimate concern has been rising over the OK hand gesture and what it says of those associating themselves with it. In fact, here’s a picture of known white nationalist Richard Spencer proudly hoisting it up.
If we’re beginning to sound like conspiracy theorists, then the alt-right has succeeded in its attempt to delegitimize anyone attempting to stop white nationalism from being normalized in the mainstream. theoutline.com/post/1428/the-…
Because that’s where the concerns with this symbol arises. In making memes and tame-seeming hand gestures white nationalist iconography, the alt-right has made it easy for the unaware public to gaslight those of us attempting to connect the dots.
Whether @kanyewest is aware of this or not is beyond us, but we won’t shy away from denouncing him for supporting the xenophobic agenda of the 45th, and for collaborating with anyone comfortable enough to give white nationalist iconography an international platform.
