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.

215 Results

Okay Hand Gesture

Hate Symbol

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.

Oklahoma Aryan Brotherhood

Hate Symbol

The Oklahoma Aryan Brotherhood is one of several white supremacist prison gangs in the Oklahoma prison system whose name derives from the unrelated "original" Aryan Brotherhood, which is based in the California and federal prison systems. Its patch is a shield on top of two lightning bolts and a sword, with a clover, a swastika, and SS bolts inside the shield.

ORION

Hate Symbol

ALTERNATE NAMES: Our Race Is Our Nation"Our Race Is Our Nation" or "ORION" is a racist slogan proclaiming that racial ties are paramount to all else, transcending national borders or boundaries. Within the United States, for example, a white supremacist might use it to suggest that he or she owes allegiance to his or her race, rather than to the United States itself. In an international context, white supremacists use it to suggest that all "white" people, from Europe or the United States or…

ALTERNATE NAMES: Our Race Is Our Nation

Othala Rune

Hate Symbol

ALTERNATE NAMES: Othal Rune, Othila Rune, Odal Rune, Norse RuneThe othala rune is part of the runic alphabet system, a system of writing used (with many variations) across pre-Roman Europe. In the 20th century, Nazis in Germany adopted the othal rune, among many other similar symbols, as part of their attempt to reconstruct a mythic "Aryan" past. Nazi uses of the symbol included the divisional insignia of two Waffen SS divisions during World War II. Following World War II, white supremacists…

ALTERNATE NAMES: Othal Rune, Othila Rune, Odal Rune, Norse Rune

Patriot Front

Hate Symbol

The Patriot Front is a white supremacist group in the United States that uses a fasces and a circle of 13 stars as its logo, often placed on top of the image of an eagle.

Peckerwood

Hate Symbol

ALTERNATE NAMES: Wood, Woodpile, PWThe word "peckerwood" originated as an African-American slang term for "woodpecker" in the 1800s, but by the early 1900s began to be applied as a racial epithet against whites, with a meaning similar to the term "white trash." In the second half of the 20th century, in prison environments in Texas, California, and possibly elsewhere, the word peckerwood, originally used to refer to white prisoners generally, began to develop a more specific association with…

ALTERNATE NAMES: Wood, Woodpile, PW

Peckerwood (hand sign)

Hate Symbol

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

Hate Symbol

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.

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

Pepe the Frog

Hate Symbol

Pepe the Frog is a popular internet meme used in a variety of contexts. In recent years it has also been appropriated by white supremacists, particularly those from the "alt right," who use in racist, antisemitic or other hateful contexts.

ALTERNATE NAMES: Sad Frog

Phineas Priesthood

Hate Symbol

ALTERNATE NAMES: Phinehas PriesthoodThe concept of the Phineas Priesthood (or Phinehas Priesthood) comes from a 1990 book by white supremacist and Christian Identity follower Richard Kelly Hoskins, Vigilantes of Christendom: The Story of the Phineas Priesthood. Christian Identity is a racist and anti-Semitic sect whose adherents believe that white people are descended from the Lost Tribes of Israel. In his book, Hoskins describes a continuous priesthood of "avengers" who, throughout the…

ALTERNATE NAMES: Phinehas Priesthood

Pit Bull

Hate Symbol

The pit bull has long been used as a skinhead symbol, presumably because of its reputation as a "fighting" dog. Many racist skinheads and other white supremacists own or even raise pit bulls. White supremacists use one specific pit bulll graphic so often that it has become a white supremacist symbol itself. One racist skinhead group, the Keystone State Skinheads (at one time known as Keystone United) even adopted it as part of their logo. Additional Images:

RAHOWA

Hate Symbol

RAHOWA is an acronym for "Racial Holy War," a term created by the Creativity Movement, a white supremacist pseudo-religion, as a rallying cry for the white supremacist cause.

Rise Above Movement

Hate Symbol

The Rise Above Movement (RAM) is a California-based alt right white supremacist group with a fitness and martial arts emphasis. Its logo features a sword stuck into a boulder; the sword also serves as the trunk of a tree.

ROA

Hate Symbol

ROA is an acronym for the white supremacist slogan "Race Over All," popularized by the neo-Nazi/racist skinhead gang Volksfront. Additional Images:

Rock Against Communism

Hate Symbol

ALTERNATE NAMES: RACRock Against Communism (RAC) is a euphemism used to refer to several types of white power/hate music (typically Oi! or hatecore punk). Despite its name, RAC more often than not contains no references to "Communism" at all, but focuses on racism and anti-Semitism. The term emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s, after rock music promoters in Great Britain put on a series of "Rock against Racism" concerts. In response, various white supremacist bands led by Ian Stuart and…

ALTERNATE NAMES: RAC

Runic Writing (racist)

Hate Symbol

Runic alphabets are pre-Roman alphabets used widely across Europe, easily recognizable because of their angular characters. There are many different varieties of runic alphabets, of which the most well known is the so-called Elder Futhark (the name is derived from the sounds of the first six characters). Runic alphabets are still used today in many mainstream and non-racist contexts. However, white supremacists have also appropriated the runic alphabet, in large part because Nazi Germany often…

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

Sadistic Souls

Hate Symbol

Sadistic Souls is a small white supremacist outlaw biker gang active primarily in the Midwest. It is also a faction of the neo-Nazi group Aryan Nations. Sadistic Souls members may sport Aryan Nations symbology, as well as biker jackets and rockers that depict a Totenkopf image and the group's name, with the first "S" in each word of its name rendered as lightning bolts.

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.

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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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