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.

82 Results

Silent Aryan Warriors

Hate Symbol

The Silent Aryan Warriors (SAW) are a large white supremacist gang based in Utah. Their primary tattoo consists of an Iron Cross with SS lighting bolts and a curved swastika at the center. Four Totenkopfs surround the Iron Cross, while around the image are the German phrases "für immer weiss" and "für immer stolz," which translate to "forever white" and "forever proud."

ALTERNATE NAMES: SAW

Soldiers of Aryan Culture

Hate Symbol

Soldiers of Aryan Culture (SAC) is a large Utah-based white supremacist prison gang. The two symbols most commonly used by the gang are 1) the group's initials, SAC, and 2) a swastika interwoven with an Iron Cross.

ALTERNATE NAMES: SAC

Solid Wood Soldiers

Hate Symbol

The Solid Wood Soldiers are a Texas-based white supremacist prison gang. Their primary tattoo consists of the initials SWS, with the two S's represented by lightning bolts. Above the initials appears the image of a bear claw, with the number 4 in the middle and sometimes the letters HCRL.

ALTERNATE NAMES:

Southern Brotherhood

Hate Symbol

The Southern Brotherhood is a large, Alabama-based white supremacist prison gang. Read more about the Brotherhood's most common symbol, the shield tattoo.

Stormfront

Hate Symbol

Stormfront is the oldest and largest white supremacist website on the Internet. Its logo consists of a squarish Celtic Cross encircled by the phrase "White Pride World Whide."

Supreme White Alliance

Hate Symbol

The Supreme White Alliance (SWA) is a hardcore racist skinhead gang based primarily in the Midwest. The gang has used a variety of symbols but the most common include a shield symbol with a laurel wreath and a dog or wolf; and a shield symbol containing a Wolfsangel, a Triskele and the number 43.

ALTERNATE NAMES: SWA

Supreme White Alliance (hand sign)

Hate Symbol

The Supreme White Alliance is a hardcore racist skinhead gang based primarily in the Midwest. Members sometimes use a two-handed handsign in which four fingers from one hand and three fingers from the other hand are used to represent the number 43. The gang uses 43 as a numeric symbol because the alphanumeric equivalents of the gang's initials (19 for S, 23 for W, and 1 for A), when added together, equal 43.

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

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.

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.

Vanguard America

Hate Symbol

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

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.

Volksfront (hand sign)

Hate Symbol

Members of the white supremacist group Volksfront have used several handsigns to represent their gang. A common one-handed sign features the fingers of the right hand divided into a "V" shape, often held over the chest. A two-handed sign uses one hand to make a "V" shape (using two or four fingers) and the other hand to make the shape of the letter "F."

WAR (Arkansas prison gang)

Hate Symbol

White Aryan Resistance (WAR) is the name of a large, Arkansas-based white supremacist prison gang, who borrowed the name from California white supremacist Tom Metzger. Their main symbol is an elaborate pyramid-shaped tattoo that contains symbols representing rank and other meanings.

ALTERNATE NAMES: White Aryan Resistance (gang)

White Aryan Resistance

Hate Symbol

White Aryan Resistance (WAR) was a loosely organized racist skinhead movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s centered around white supremacist Tom Metzger. Now the symbol is associated with Metzger himself or used as a general hate symbol.

ALTERNATE NAMES: WAR, Insurgent

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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.

Hate on Display is a trademark of the Anti-Defamation League.