US service academies say hand gestures at Army-Navy game were a game and not racist

[Poiuyt]

The US Naval Academy and US Military Academy at West Point said Friday that the hand gesture some cadets and midshipmen were seen making on camera was part of a game known as the "circle game" and not a white supremacist symbol.

The circle game is commonly played when a person forms an "OK" with their hand below their waist to trick a second person into looking at it. If the second person is caught looking at the hand gesture, that person is then punched by the person who made the gesture.

The academies were investigating to see if the cadets and midshipmen were making a sign that can be associated with white nationalism, which is someone forming the "OK" sign with their fingers and thumb to symbolize the letters "WP" -- which stands for white power.



https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/20/politics/naval-academy-hand-gesture/index.html

Right

[dewsgirl]

1. Jesus Christ😳 Whatever🙄

[Va Lefty]

2. Nothing to see here. Move along.

[Hortensis]

57. It's a real game. In real life it's likely most would be innocent,

while some would be using the game as an opportunity to "get away" with racist double meaning.

I'm very glad to hear what the investigation turned up. A class full of budding Nazi types would be very strange and alarming. They'd have to have been chosen for bad character, right? And national attention on this means media are looking at it also. If there is any coverup, it won't last. Good, decent students will be telling their families, friends, and media what they know.

[jayfish]

3. A Game To See...

if they could get away with throwing up racist signs?

[Thomas Hurt]

4. Sure, an alt right game for racists...

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

21. Got that right!!

[Blue_true]

43. When the story first broke, a DU member relayed how he plays the circle game with his young kids.

The symbol can also mean "I am ok with the world", Tom Brady and Ron Gronskowski used it after their recent Super Bowl win, Brady's best friend on the Patriots is Benjamin Watson, his former tight end who recently returned to the team after years away, Watson is Black.

We can take the symbol back from white supremacist by taking time to understand why a person used it. Was it racist, it was it inspirational. White supremacist have the upper hand now because they know that we are likely to over react, that gives them a sense of power.

[Cosmocat]

46. Who exactly are they playing this "game" with

Everyone is facing the same direction.

[Blue_true]

49. People have lateral vision, and a sense of nearby motion.

I view what they were doing as innocent, though very ignorant. If they had kept themselves informed on modern trends, they would have realized what the symbol had come to mean. I view the situation as a chance for the service academies to reguire civics classes each semester where current societal events are discussed in detail, kids can't just learn about warfare techniques with no mention of the societies that they ,and later, their kids will live in.

[Cosmocat]

58. ah man

come on ...

Just not even remotely plausible.

[Blue_true]

65. We have to agree to disagree. Believe me, no one hates racists more that I do. But

I also don't see things that are explainable as something which they may have not been.

If I was the Academy director, each of those kids would get punished and have a file added to their records, but I would not kick them out.

[exboyfil]

5. Right behind one of the few black cadets there

Really. What was it with dropping the trash as well.

[2naSalit]

11. Right?

What this says is: Racists welcome in our military. Make sense, you can't indoctrinate smart people with morals. If you want to demonize a people in order to get your soldiers to kill them in an ongoing program of warmongering, you can't rely on critical thinkers.

[walkingman]

53. Tell it!

[redstatebluegirl]

6. I am sure the orange king intervened in this.

Or his little troll Stephen Smith.

[hlthe2b]

14. Stephen Miller...

[C_U_L8R]

7. Bullshit.

Everyone knows.

[FiveGoodMen]

8. Pull the other one!

[BamaRefugee]

9. Well, the hand in the pic is ABOVE the waist, so what's their fantasy excuse now?

Lynching was a "game" too, not unlike football, big crowd gathers and screams and yells, brings the kids to start them in on the traditions beloved by all the townfolk. Great fun for the whole family, go home tired but happy.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

19. they found the excuse online and it has spread to supremacists everywhere

When caught, deny the racism and substitute "game".

[Cosmocat]

47. Even more to the point ... everyone is facing the same direction

htf can they trick some one into looking at their cock, then punch them, if no one is facing them?

[blugbox]

10. This is the bullshit outcome we were all predicting.

In the article, they even explain how the game is played... and that isn't what is happening on screen!

[Loki Liesmith]

12. DU behavioral experts chiming in...

[XRubicon]

17. .

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6815593/Brenton-Tarrant-faces-court-charged-Christchurch-terror-attack.html


Made you look!

Your turn! This is good clean fuuuuun!

[Marengo]

30. Yep, if DU doesn't concur, it can't be true

[XRubicon]

32. It's a horn

[marble falls]

34. Why weren't black cadets or middies playing along?

[cwydro]

38. At least one midshipman did it. It's in one of the videos.

Someone actually pushed his hand down, which is interesting.

[RandiFan1290]

59. I'm sure the racists appreciate

your continued defense of the hand gesture.

[XRubicon]

13. Yes, just a game they play with mass murders and racists, nothing to see here...

Who's turn is it? Brenton Tarrant or David Duke?

[greatauntoftriplets]

15. Yeah, right.

[Midnight Writer]

16. We used to play this game and called it "bagging". That is not what I see here.

[FakeNoose]

18. Total BS - they got caught and now they're trying to weasel out of it

Nobody is buying their stupid story.

[Wawannabe]

26. Hahahahahahahahahaha!

Loosin it! Why is that so funny? OMG!

[somaticexperiencing]

20. Yeah, and I'm going to start a game called the "fuck you" game, where you use your middle finger.

[crickets]

22. More convenient to take the out than deal with the issue. Sad. nt

[tblue37]

23. Oh, bull caca! nt

[Wawannabe]

24. Riiiiiiiiiiigggghhhhht...

Whatever. This is bullshit to the enth degree!

[bluestarone]

25. I thought this would warrant a look at his background?

I wonder if he belonged to any group? That's what i would have done.

[MineralMan]

27. Of course, wink, wink, nod, nod...

[RestoreAmerica2020]

28. Had the only two black cadets pictured sported the black power sign, well...

It was done in jest, boys will be boys kinda of thing--bullshit! It IS the racist kkknazi power sign. Try doing it, it is an awkward unnatural skewing of hand and fingers not just the ok sign. ADL [Anti-Defamation League] and Southern Poverty Law Center have same sign listed as a hate symbol.

[Kingofalldems]

29. So I guess Trump also plays the circle game.

[old guy]

31. I expected nothing else.

[marble falls]

33. Surprising how no black cadets or middies were in on the "game".

[RockRaven]

35. So are the service academies dumb/duped or dishonorable/lying?

The old "we investigated ourself and found nothing" never goes over well...

[cwydro]

36. This is exactly what I figured would happen.

And these innocent little boys certainly knew that this stupid “game” would give them complete deniability.

[WestLosAngelesGal]

37. I call B.S.

So much covering up.

[cachukis]

39. This was a common game played in high school 10 years ago and

Is passe. My students ran it in the halls. No longer played in high school in my town, Tampa. I would say excuse is bogus.

[Efilroft Sul]

40. I just rolled my eyes so hard they came out my ears.

[Stinky The Clown]

41. No surprised. The service academies have a real white power problem

[RhodeIslandOne]

42. Sounds logical

Apparently our servicemen are so stupid they believe they can punch viewers in the nuts via the television.

[Cosmocat]

48. T H I S

Pretty hard to trick people into looking at your cock and then punch them if ... everyone is standing in stadium seeting facing the same directiion.

[Tertullian]

44. What bullshit!

We need honest leadership in our armed forces, NOT cover-ups and lies.

[Demonaut]

45. pick your battles wisely

[TeamPooka]

51. If the game was "spot the racists" then I won. nt

[Sneederbunk]

52. I gave the game up after grade school.

[TomSlick]

54. In my day, Army folks called such excuses "Bull Shit."

Back in the day, I was taught that when you screwed-up, the only correct answer was "No excuse, sir."

Of course, in my day, cadets were taught that the essence of being an officer was Duty and Honor. Then again, I was an ROTC cadet at a state college. Maybe things are different at West Point.

Can any West Point alum clarify?

[Liberal In Texas]

55. Nice try for the spin. Just admit

you have a racist problem.

[KPN]

56. How stupid do they think we are?! This BS

explanation would be laughable it it wasn’t so vile.

[dware]

60. Even if, as they say, it was the circle game,

and I don't for a second believe it, these cadets brought shame and dishonor to their respective academies and should be expelled and discharged from the military.

[KentuckyWoman]

61. BULL ....... FUCKING ......... SHIT

It is an embarrassment that the leaders of these institutions will protect this crap instead of punish it to the point these types are pushed out and stop coming.

[Takket]

62. Yeah right. There is a game being played here. Having nothing to do with circles

And we are all the suckers.

[mfcorey1]

63. My response to the cadets who participated

Excuses are tools of the incompetent
which create monuments
of nothingness.
Those who specialize in them
are seldom good in anything…. –

-Author Unknown-

[Captain Stern]

64. That's some pretty weak sauce.

What makes it even sadder than it already is......is they had time to 'find' a reason (made up excuse), and this was the best they could do.

[spanone]

66. I can fix that....they were AT a game and they ARE racists.

[mahina]

67. What if it was the other infantile game, bunny ears behind another person.

That would prove they were idiots too. This just adds racism.