Home Cartoon characters The University of Nebraska mascot’s hand gesture has been revised to avoid any connection to white supremacy

The University of Nebraska mascot’s hand gesture has been revised to avoid any connection to white supremacy

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The University of Nebraska updated its mascot image to avoid any white supremacist ties, replacing the character’s OK hand gesture with a “#1” gesture.

For nearly 50 years, the University of Nebraska’s Cornhuskers mascot – a cartoon caricature named Herbie Husker with a red cowboy hat, blue overalls and a corncob in his pocket – has displayed the sign of hand OK, according to the Flatwater Free Press, who first broke the news on Friday.

But the college decided to change its mascot and so displayed the “No. 1” gesture instead after learning that the OK hand sign had been associated with far-right extremists and white supremacist groups these days. years, according to the media.

Lonna Henrichs, director of licensing and branding for the university’s athletic department, told the Flatwater Free Press that the university “made this change as quickly as possible.”

“That hand gesture might, in some circles, represent something that doesn’t represent what Nebraska athletics is all about,” Henrichs said. “We didn’t even want to be associated with representing anything that anyone might think, you know, that means white power.”

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), in 2017 the OK hand sign was first used as a symbol of hate by members of the underground website 4chan, who claimed the gesture represented the letters “WP” for “white power”. as part of a hoax intended to trigger and troll liberals. Far-right extremists eventually began using the sign as a symbol of hate as well, and by 2019 some had started using it without irony, according to the ADL.

Still, not everyone is aware of the meaning, and using the gesture does not mean the person is using it as a symbol of hate, the organization notes.

“The overwhelming use of the ‘agree’ hand gesture today is still its traditional purpose as a gesture signifying assent or approval. As a result, someone using the symbol cannot be purported to use the symbol in a trolling or, more importantly, white supremacy context unless there is other contextual evidence to support the claim,” the ADL’s website reads. .

In the case of Herbie Husker, the association between the hand gesture and white supremacy was brought to the attention of the university when her clothing supplier, among others, informed her of the significance, to following the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, the university’s athletics department said. The Associated Press in a report.

“The logo modification process began in 2020 and we updated our brand guidelines in July 2021. The revised logo is now the only Herbie Husker brand available to licensees,” the statement continued.