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.

31 Results

PENI

Hate Symbol

Public Enemy Number 1 is a large white supremacist gang based in the prisons and on the streets of California. Its most common symbol is simply a shortened version of its own name, such as PENI or PEN1. Members may also refer to the gang as the Peni Death Squad or PDS, thus PDS is also a common tattoo.

ALTERNATE NAMES: Peni Death Squad, PDS, Peni, PEN1, Public Enemy Number 1

Sacred Separatist Group

Hate Symbol

The Sacred Separatist Group (SSG) is a Missouri-based white supremacist prison gang. The group's "patch" tattoo consists of a shield over a crossed sword and battleaxe, with the initials SSG inside. Typically, the letters SS in those initials are rendered as lightning bolts.

ALTERNATE NAMES: SSG

Saxon Knights

Hate Symbol

The Saxon Knights are a large, Indiana-based white supremacist prison gang. Their primary symbol is a shield tattoo, with a shield emblem superimposed over a sword, a warhammer, and a battleaxe. The shield has four sections, two of which include the letters "S" and "K." A third section usually contains a knight's helmet. The fourth section is sometimes left blank and sometimes contains one of a number of other symbols.

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.

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.

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 Knights

Hate Symbol

The White Knights are a Texas-based white supremacist prison gang (also active in Arizona in recent years). Their main symbol consists of a knight's helmet containing a skull. Behind the skull are two crossed swords, while the words "white" and "knight" appear on "rockers" above and below the skull.

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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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