Racists ruin lots of things.
They can turn an otherwise pleasant Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends into a tense, unpleasant affair when they let slip a casual remark about “those” people having lots to be thankful for by not being shot by police even though they deserve to be.
On college campuses they occasionally foul the bucolic idealized notion of enlightenment and higher education on college campuses with their anonymously posted handbills and leaflets.
In fashion they have appropriated the color of shoelaces and footwear to signify to their slack- jawed brethren beliefs and philosophies.
A simple meal at a quick-stop restaurant can be ruined the moment an irate customer goes on a simpleton’s rampage about somebody else speaking a language other than English.
And recently, it appears, they have ruined a hand gesture that, before them, was meant to signify everything was looking bright and chirpy.
The Anti-Defamation League recently announced they have added the OK sign — a hand gesture made by pressing the tips of the thumb and index finger together while extending the remaining three fingers into the air — to a compendium of hate symbols.
Initially the OK sign was loosely adopted by white nationalists to indicate “white power,” with the three fingers forming the letter W and the circle made by the thumb and forefinger making an inverted P.
(As ridiculous as they may be, there is no denying racists can be stupidly imaginative at times.)
In the years since Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, the alt-right and white supremacists have been emboldened to share their disdain for people of color in public and, in the process, flashing the OK.
Some academics and trackers of hate groups might argue that OK has been a part of the racist legion’s communication arsenal long before Trump came along.
That may be. But the hand signal was innocuous enough that it was widely used to signify everything was fine.
From Eddie Murphy in the movie “Beverly Hills Cop” to a dive buddy under sea; to most people OK meant, well, OK. But not anymore.
Now the racists have come along and ruined something else that was simple and functional and didn’t cause anyone to have to think twice.
Thanks for nothing.
Maybe in time the rest of us good-natured non-ignorants will adopt our own hand gesture to indicate just what we think of the slow-blinking light thinkers.
Maybe in time a single raised middle finger will, in resembling a capital I, confer to them and those around us: “I see your Ignorance.”
Or we can just let the gesture and its current meaning stand on its own. Either way, it applies.
