According to gaming commentator Daniel Rosen, using the OK hand sign is “not OK”.
Last week, video game developer Blizzard banned people from making the OK hand gesture gesture at the Overwatch League venue after someone in the audience flashed it up in the background of a video.
“The OK hand gesture is not OK – Blizzard was right to ban it,” said Rosen, adding that is used by “people with ties to white supremacist movements”.
Rosen noted that the origin of the issue was a 4chan troll intended to bait the left into believing the OK hand sign is racist, but argued that it has now come to mean that anyway.
Much like the rest of the media, he is actually parroting the very narrative that the far-right wants in asserting the OK hand gesture is racist.
Of course, banning a perfectly normal hand gesture simply because it has been adopted by a minority of white supremacists is a completely hysterical overreaction.
Saying that it’s not acceptable to use the OK hand sign because it is used by racists is like saying it’s not acceptable to be vegetarian because Hitler was vegetarian.
The video has received a whopping 13,000 thumbs down compared to just 2,100 thumbs up.
It also received some choice responses on Twitter.
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— Wolfy (@Iamthewolfy) April 10, 2019
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— EU KogMaw (@EKogmaw) April 10, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Thankfully 4chan hasn't decided to make thumbs down a hate symbol yet so I can ? this video without the fear of being a racist.
— Sascha Steffens (@SaschaSteffens) April 10, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
So allowing the white supremacist to take the symbol and banning it is ok let's say next they decide the smiling emoji should be a white supremacist symbol as soon as a couple people think it should we get rid of them? That argument is so dumb
— Wynn Fabrizio (@WynnFabrizio) April 10, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Treating the ok gesture as a hate symbol is just doing exactly what these people want. You are making this issue worse by giving them the meaning they want for this gesture. By this logic if white surpremisists ate pizza then we should call pizza a hate symbol.
— DovahChief (@DovahChief17) April 9, 2019
