Hate on Display™ Hate Symbols Database

This database provides an overview of many of the symbols most frequently used by a variety of white supremacist groups and movements, as well as some other types of hate groups.

214 Results

The Goyim Know/Shut It Down

Hate Symbol

The phrase “The Goyim Know” is an antisemitic phrase portraying the ostensible reaction of Jews when their supposedly conspiratorial or manipulative misdeeds are revealed to the public. Often combined with “Shut It Down.”

ALTERNATE NAMES: Da Goyim Know

The Happy Merchant

Hate Symbol

The Happy Merchant is a very common antisemitic meme popularized by the alt right, featuring a person with exaggerated stereotypically Jewish features and grasping hands, meant to convey a “greedy Jew.”

ALTERNATE NAMES: Jew Face, Merchant Face, Le Happy Merchant

The Order

Hate Symbol

The Order was an American white supremacist terrorist group from the early to mid-1980s which committed assassinations, armored car robberies and bombings for several years before being brought down by law enforcement.

ALTERNATE NAMES: Silent Brotherhood, Brüder Schweigen

Thor's Hammer

Hate Symbol

The Thor's Hammer or Hammer of Thor is an ancient Norse symbol. In Norse mythology, Thor is the god of thunder and his hammer (called Mjölnir) has the power of lightning. During the era of Viking ascendancy, miniature Thor's Hammers were often used as religious amulets. Today, the Hammer is a major symbol for those who follow neo-Norse religions such as Asatru. Although its traditional origins are non-racist, and although most Asatruers today are not racist, the Thor's Hammer…

Totenkopf

Hate Symbol

ALTERNATE NAMES: Death's Head"Totenkopf" is German for "death's head" or skull and typically refers to a skull-and-crossbones image. During the Nazi era, Hitler's Schutzstaffel (SS) adopted one particular Totenkopf image as a symbol. Among other uses, it became the symbol of the SS-Totenkopfverbande (one of the original three branches of the SS, along with the Algemeine SS and the Waffen SS), whose purpose was to guard the concentration camps. Many original members of this…

ALTERNATE NAMES: Death's Head

Traditionalist Youth Network

Hate Symbol

The Traditionalist Youth Network is a small white supremacist group that attempts white supremacist activities on college campuses. Its logo consists of five arrows pointing up and outwards from a single spot.

Triangular Klan Symbol

Hate Symbol

The triangular Ku Klux Klan symbol looks like a triangle within a triangle but is actually three letter K's aligned in a triangle and facing inwards.

Triskele

Hate Symbol

ALTERNATE NAMES: TriskelionThe triskele (or triskelion) is an ancient symbol originating in pre-Christian Europe. The symbol consists of three curved or jointed segments spiraling from a common center. One version of the triskele, with three human legs, has been used in the coat of arms for the Isle of Man and the Kingdom of Naples. An abstracted triskele appears on the seal of the United States Department of Transportation. The triskele appears in many different variations, from a form that…

ALTERNATE NAMES: Triskelion

Trollface (Racist Versions)

Hate Symbol

Like Pepe the Frog, “Trollface” is a widely-used internet cartoon meme that has been appropriated and used by some white supremacists. Care must be taken not to make assumptions of the intent behind its use but to judge it only in context.

Tyr Rune

Hate Symbol

The Tyr rune is one of many ancient European symbols appropriated by the Nazis in their attempts to create an idealized "Aryan/Norse" heritage. This gave symbols such as the Tyr rune a new, racist significance that they did not originally have. Nazi Germany used the Tyr rune as a symbol for a number of Nazi entities, including the leadership schools (Reichsführerschulen) of Hitler's brownshirts, the Sturmabteilung, and a Waffen SS infantry division, among others. Since World War II,…

Unforgiven

Hate Symbol

The Unforgiven are a large white supremacist prison gang based in the Florida prison system. Their main symbol consists of an interlocking Iron Cross and swastika, with SS lightning bolts in the center.

Universal Aryan Brotherhood

Hate Symbol

The Universal Aryan Brotherhood is a white supremacist prison gang based in the Oklahoma prison system, one of several such gangs that have used "brotherhood" in their title. Despite the gang's name, it has no connection to the original Aryan Brotherhood, which is based in the California and federal prison systems.

USAS

Hate Symbol

The United Society of Aryan Skinheads (USA) is a white supremacist gang active in the prisons and on the streets. Although it originated in Oregon, it is essentially based in California. USAS members primarily use one or more of three symbols: the white power fist, the Valknot, and bindrunes.

Valknot

Hate Symbol

The Valknot or "knot of the slain" is an old Norse symbol associated with the afterlife that has been appropriated by white supremacists as a racist symbol. Non-racist pagans may also use this symbol, so it should be carefully examined in context.

ALTERNATE NAMES: Valknut, Valknutr, Hrungnir's Heart

Vanguard America

Hate Symbol

Vanguard America is a small neo-Nazi group whose logo depicts an eagle carrying a fasces.

Vinland Flag

Hate Symbol

The Vinland Flag was designed in the 1990s by goth metal musician Peter Steele for an album for his band, Type O Negative. "Vinland" was the name given by Viking explorers to the area of North America that they discovered in the Middle Ages. In the early 2000s, white supremacists (most notably, the Vinlanders Social Club, a racist skinhead gang) began to appropriate the flag as a white supremacist symbol. Common variants involve adding one or more other hate symbols to the flag. Despite its…

Vinlanders Social Club

Hate Symbol

The Vinlanders Social Club (VSC) is one of the larger hardcore racist skinhead gangs in the United States, with their strongest bases of support in Indiana and Arizona.

ALTERNATE NAMES: VSC

Vinlanders Social Club (hand sign)

Hate Symbol

The handsign used by the Vinlanders Social Club, a racist skinhead gang, consists of holding up the first, second, and fourth fingers of one hand.

Volksfront

Hate Symbol

Volksfront is a hybrid racist skinhead gang/neo-Nazi group that started in the Pacific Northwest in the 1990s.

Volksfront Flag

Hate Symbol

Volksfront is a hybrid racist skinhead gang/neo-Nazi group that started in the Pacific Northwest in the 1990s.

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Submit a Hate Symbol to ADL at hate-symbols@adl.org

All the symbols depicted here must be evaluated in the context in which they appear. Few symbols represent just one idea or are used exclusively by one group. For example, the Confederate Flag is a symbol that is frequently used by white supremacists but which also has been used by people and groups that are not racist. Similarly, other symbols in this database may be significant to people who are not extreme or racist. The descriptions here point out significant multiple meanings but may not be able to relay every possible meaning of a particular symbol.

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