When OK is not OK

[DisneyKoyote]

Isn't there some sorority/fraternity that uses the upside down OK hand symbol to represent their house? They're going to have to start rethinking that lol...
I think I've also done it before...not in the white supremacist way, but in the way where someone is trying to communicate with me secretly from across the room (usually for a surprise party) and instead of making it obvious, I just make ok/got it symbol with my hand down which ends up look like that hahaa

 

[msjprincess]

Am I the only one here who has never heard of the circle game? Seriously... I'm 41, grew up in a combo of NY, NJ, and CA and this is the first I am hearing about this game.

Nope. I'm older, but I asked my spouse and siblings, who are all in their 40s and none have heard of it.

 

[robinb]

@Heelish
Do facts make you angry?
You posting that picture has nothing to do with what the pp pointed out- that someone else in the same picture has their hand in the exact same position as the assumed white supremacist.

“Assumed” white supremacist? Do you even know who that is in the photo?

 

[morgan98]

Honestly, I do not feel like I live under a rock AT ALL (although I am not on social media) and I know nothing about this use of the okay symbol.

Heck, when I type OK to respond to a text on my iPhone that is the symbol that comes up. Seems like it the symbol were that controversial, it would be dropped from something like that.

 

[robinb]

Am I the only one here who has never heard of the circle game? Seriously... I'm 41, grew up in a combo of NY, NJ, and CA and this is the first I am hearing about this game.

The first time I ever heard of the circle game was the first time I read people trying to justify the use of the upside down OK sign.

 

[Moliphino]

Apparently their own 2 year old son is also a white supremacist...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...spicable-me-actor-after-ok-symbol/3791483002/

It looks like the toddler is pointing with his pointer finger and the thumb and middle finger are touching.

 

[Searc]

Am I the only one here who has never heard of the circle game? Seriously... I'm 41, grew up in a combo of NY, NJ, and CA and this is the first I am hearing about this game.

No idea what it is. 45, never heard of it.

 

[DLgal]

Honestly, I do not feel like I live under a rock AT ALL (although I am not on social media) and I know nothing about this use of the okay symbol.

Heck, when I type OK to respond to a text on my iPhone that is the symbol that comes up. Seems like it the symbol were that controversial, it would be dropped from something like that.

At this point, if you aren't on social media at all, you kind of are living under a rock.

 

[DLgal]

Why is this so hard for people to grasp?

The "OK" symbol means "OK" when used explicitly in lieu of speaking, as an immediate response to another person. So, if someone tells or asks you something and you would say the words "OK", but instead flash the symbol at them, THAT IS FINE. Keep doing that. No big deal.

If you are taking a photo, and no one is talking, and you are a group of white people and everyone is conspicuously flashing the sign, it probably doesn't mean "OK."

If you are a white person and taking a photo that features a non white person, and you are SURREPTITIOUSLY making the sign, that also doesn't mean "OK."

If a toddler's fingers curl into some version of the OK sign, or some known gang sign, or gives the finger, IT'S A FREAKING TODDLER and nothing should be read into it. Toddlers are well known to usually have no idea what their hands are doing.

Is this clear enough?

 

[sam_gordon]

Why is this so hard for people to grasp?

The "OK" symbol means "OK" when used explicitly in lieu of speaking, as an immediate response to another person. So, if someone tells or asks you something and you would say the words "OK", but instead flash the symbol at them, THAT IS FINE. Keep doing that. No big deal.

If you are taking a photo, and no one is talking, and you are a group of white people and everyone is conspicuously flashing the sign, it probably doesn't mean "OK."

If you are a white person and taking a photo that features a non white person, and you are SURREPTITIOUSLY making the sign, that also doesn't mean "OK."

If a toddler's fingers curl into some version of the OK sign, or some known gang sign, or gives the finger, IT'S A FREAKING TODDLER and nothing should be read into it. Toddlers are well known to usually have no idea what their hands are doing.

Is this clear enough?

But according to some here, now that you know it's a WP symbol, you shouldn't use it. Period. According to them, context doesn't matter.

Don't flash white power symbols.

It has become such a symbol. It is such a symbol. One shouldn't use it unless they mean it. And if they mean it, well then they've showed everyone who they are by doing so. And if by chance they didn't know, once it is explained they shouldn't use it again.

 

[Hikergirl]

“Assumed” white supremacist? Do you even know who that is in the photo?

I'm talking about the man in the Gru costume
my pp
You posting that picture has nothing to do with what the pp pointed out- that someone else in the same picture has their hand in the exact same position as the assumed white supremacist.

 

[Hikergirl]

Why is this so hard for people to grasp?

The "OK" symbol means "OK" when used explicitly in lieu of speaking, as an immediate response to another person. So, if someone tells or asks you something and you would say the words "OK", but instead flash the symbol at them, THAT IS FINE. Keep doing that. No big deal.

If you are taking a photo, and no one is talking, and you are a group of white people and everyone is conspicuously flashing the sign, it probably doesn't mean "OK."

If you are a white person and taking a photo that features a non white person, and you are SURREPTITIOUSLY making the sign, that also doesn't mean "OK."

If a toddler's fingers curl into some version of the OK sign, or some known gang sign, or gives the finger, IT'S A FREAKING TODDLER and nothing should be read into it. Toddlers are well known to usually have no idea what their hands are doing.

Is this clear enough?

Yes however if one wants to "prove" that the symbol is being used (IN THE FAMILY VACATION PHOTO) as a symbol of white supremacy by posting pictures of white supremacists using it then surely people can use pictures of people using it to prove IT ISN"T ALWAYS USED THAT WAY. Just like the toddler in that photo.

Clear enough for you?

 

[Squirlz]

A friend of mine is a professional roadside photographer (Killboy.com) and people routinely do the Finger Trap for their photos. I hope that doesn't have to stop just because of a few idiots.

 

[Wendy31]

I'm 46 & definitely remember the circle game growing up.

Thinking back, it seemed to be most popular when I was around middle school age... everyone was doing it. My little sister loved the game.

In looking at the uncropped photo, the other little boy in the picture (the one standing w/ the Minion character) is making the same sign as the Gru character. Are the children related? If the children are related, why are the parents upset w/ the Gru character for making the same sign that the other child was making? Were the characters playing a game w/ the kids like characters in costumes sometimes do?

W/o context, I can understand maybe being upset if Gru just suddenly flashed the sign over my kid's head, but, since the other little boy in the photo is making the same sign, that doesn't look like what happened.

I'm confused.

I'm also genuinely confused about the "okay" sign in general. When I first read the announcement from the ADL, I thought it meant that the "okay" sign was now a sign of hate regardless of whether the fingers were pointing down or up. But is that not accurate? The "okay" sign is okay as long as the fingers are pointing up (& in the proper context)? It's just a bad sign if the fingers are pointing down? If so, that actually makes sense, & I understand.

Suddenly making the "okay" sign bad just felt, to me, like we were giving way too much power to a fringe hate group, over what started out as a hoax anyway.

 

[LittleMissMagic]

It was at the character breakfast. Seems like it would be easy to trace. (I still have my e-mail with my reservation for ours in April.)

However, all I read in the article is that the person doesn't work there, but the headlines all say "fired." So I am confused about if the person had already quit or been fired for some other reason.

At Disney, fur characters are only allowed to be on stage for 20 minutes at a time - there's actually 2-3 performers playing a character during a shift and they're continuously rotating. Can't speak to Universal, but assuming they function similarly, there's probably a few people that it could have been.

I think it just says "FIRED" to get people's attention. Maybe it was a contracted employee whose term was already over.

 

[PaulaSB12]

Here is one point we don't know the ethnicity of the person in the Gru suit doesn't that mean something. Plus Universal saying they sacked him doesn't mean they actually did it they probably just said that to shut people up.

 

[smiths02]

At Disney, fur characters are only allowed to be on stage for 20 minutes at a time - there's actually 2-3 performers playing a character during a shift and they're continuously rotating. Can't speak to Universal, but assuming they function similarly, there's probably a few people that it could have been.

I think it just says "FIRED" to get people's attention. Maybe it was a contracted employee whose term was already over.

At Universal, the breakfast is short and scheduled. Gru is inside in air conditioning. He is not out the entire seating period. I bet it was one person

 

[robinb]

I'm talking about the man in the Gru costume
my pp
You posting that picture has nothing to do with what the pp pointed out- that someone else in the same picture has their hand in the exact same position as the assumed white supremacist.

Ah! That makes more sense. Thanks for explaining, but it really could be read that "someone else" was Gru.

 

[robinb]

Yes however if one wants to "prove" that the symbol is being used (IN THE FAMILY VACATION PHOTO) as a symbol of white supremacy by posting pictures of white supremacists using it then surely people can use pictures of people using it to prove IT ISN"T ALWAYS USED THAT WAY. Just like the toddler in that photo.

Clear enough for you?

Do you think the toddler is making the OK sign? He's not.

 

[wvjules]

Simple-ish answer to the OP. It's not OK when it's not OK.