New York, NY, January 23, 2025 … ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today welcomed the introduction of a bill in the New York Legislature designed to bring back and strengthen a law prohibiting masked intimidation. The law will protect New Yorkers from harassment, violence and intimidation by people wearing face coverings, which have been exploited in recent months to subject innocent New Yorkers to threats, violence and intimidation. Sponsored by State Senator James Skoufis (D-Cornwall)…
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School District of Philadelphia Agrees to Address Repeated Incidents of Antisemitism New York, NY, December 20, 2024 … The School District of Philadelphia (SDP) has entered into a resolution agreement to take a series of steps to address repeated incidents of antisemitic harassment, bullying and discrimination in response to a federal civil rights complaint filed by ADL (the Anti-Defamation League). Under the terms of the settlement announced yesterday, SDP will undertake a…
Remarks as delivered June 27th, 2024 Thank you- I join you all here this morning on behalf of ADL, the oldest anti-hate organization in the United States, alongside my good friend Marc Morial, President of the National Urban League, and our partners - Assembly members Brian Cunningham, Nily Rozic, Grace Lee, Jennifer Rajkumar and Pastor Johnnie Green. In addition. We are very grateful to Dr. Hazel Dukes of the NY NAACP, an icon of the civil rights movement for lending her strong words of…
Tips and guidance for helping K-12 schools encourage students to become civically engaged, provide safety and protection for all students, and adhere to students’ First Amendment rights.
Read ADL Letters, testimony and comments sent to Congress and Federal Agencies.
New York, NY, October 5, 2021 … Thousands of individuals from all walks of life will join together in communities across the country, both in-person and virtually, with an aim to “Fight Hate for Good” in ADL’s (the Anti-Defamation League’s) Walk Against Hate.
Scheduled to take place on Sunday, October 10 in communities across the country, the annual event brings together families, friends, colleagues, teammates, community groups, students, educators and more…
New York, NY, June 23, 2021 … ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision in Mahanoy v. B.L., an 8-1 ruling that a school violated the free speech clause of the First Amendment when they suspended a student from the cheerleading team for a vulgar social media post made off-campus and outside of school hours.
“This is an important win for the free speech rights of all U.S. students,” said ADL Legal Affairs Chair Joe Berman. …
A common hand gesture that a 4chan trolling campaign claimed in 2017 had been appropriated as a symbol meaning "white power." Used by many on the right--not just extremists--for the purpose of trolling liberals, the symbol eventually came to be used by actual white supremacists as well. Caution must be used in evaluating instances of this symbol's use.
February 22, 2021 Social media platforms have received the lion’s share of attention for enabling users to spread hate and disinformation and plan and incite violence and terrorist acts. Flying under the radar are infrastructure providers like Epik, a domain registrar and web hosting company that works with nearly 750,000 websites and is ranked among the 50 largest web hosts. A domain is the address of a website you type into the URL bar of an internet browser. Domain registrars are…
White supremacists, primarily on the West Coast, may use a two-handed hand sign consisting of one hand showing or flashing two fingers and the other hand showing or flashing three fingers. Together, they signify the number 23, a numeric symbol for W ("White"). This itself is often shorthand for the numeric symbol 23/16, which stands for "White Power." Additional Images:
One of the most popular white supremacist symbols is the numeric symbol 88, which stands for "Heil Hitler" (substituting letters for numbers, 88 means HH, i.e., "Heil Hitler"). It is thus not surprising that white supremacists occasionally attempt to display 88 as a hand sign. It is not a very common white supremacist hand sign, probably because it involves some dexterity and effort. Additional Images:
The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT), a large and violent racist prison gang, uses a hand symbol consisting of a raised index finger and raised ring and little fingers (or the reverse), signifying the numbers 1 and 2. Substituting letters for numbers 1 and 2 stand for A and B, or Aryan Brotherhood. Sometimes ABT members may use a two-handed variation in which one hand "throws up" one digit and the other hand (belonging to the same or a different person) "throws up" two digits, again signifying…
The Aryan Circle is one of the largest white supremacist prison gangs in the United States. Its primary hand sign consists of holding up the thumb and the middle, ring, and little fingers of one hand, signifying the numbers 1 and 3 (which stand for AC). One can also hold up the little finger and the middle and index fingers, plus the thumb.
ALTERNATE NAMES: Bolts Up, Bolts to the SkyThe largest white supremacist prison gang in Tennessee is Aryan Nations (a different group than the neo-Nazi group of the same name). Aryan Nations gang members use a hand sign they sometimes refer to as "bolts up" or "bolts to the sky," consisting of forming the hand into a pistol shape and pointing it upwards or outwards. Additional Images:
ALTERNATE NAMES: Bolts Up, Bolts to the Sky
Read more about Aryan Nations (hand sign - Tennessee prison gang)
The European Kindred is a large white supremacist prison gang based primarily in Oregon. Gang members often use a two-handed hand sign in which three fingers of one hand are spread to look like an E and two fingers of another hand are spread to resemble a K.
The handsign of the Hammerskins, a racist skinhead group, consists of two crossed forearms emulating the "crossed hammers" of the Hammerskins logo.
ALTERNATE NAMES: Nazi SaluteThe Nazi or Hitler salute debuted in Nazi Germany in the 1930s as a way to pay homage to Adolf Hitler. It consists of raising an outstretched right arm with the palm down. In Nazi Germany, it was often accompanied by chanting or shouting "Heil Hitler" or "Sieg Heil." Since World War II, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists have continued to use the salute, making it the most common white supremacist hand sign in the world. Additional Images:
ALTERNATE NAMES: Nazi Salute
Read more about Hitler Salute (hand sign)
From its beginnings in the 1860s, the Ku Klux Klan has employed a variety of salutes and hand signs both public and private. Most of the hand signs and gestures used by the first and second Ku Klux Klans have fallen by the wayside over the years, except for the Klan salute, which dates back to 1915. It resembles a Nazi salute (which some Klan members will also use), except that it is performed with the left arm. Often Klan members will separate the fingers of their hand when making the salute …
The term "peckerwood" originated as a racial epithet directed at whites. Today, it has been adopted by adherents of the white supremacist prison gang subculture, especially in southern and western states, to refer to themselves. The handsign for "peckerwood" consists of forming the thumb, index finger and middle finger of one hand to form the letter "P," and the four fingers of the other hand to form the letter "W." This is especially common in California, where peckerwood street…
Peckerwood Midwest is a white supremacist gang based primarily in Missouri, active both in prisons and on the streets. The gang's "patch" tattoo consists of a diamond-shaped swastika inside a larger Iron Cross. Inside the swastika are SS bolts; outside the Iron Cross are the numbers 23/16.