Did dishonest gay Rep.-elect George Santos (R-NY) flash a white nationalist sign on the floor of Congress?
The “okay” hand sign is an ancient gesture that has arisen in many cultures over the years with different meanings. However, per the Antidefimation League, it acquired a new and different significance in 2017 thanks to racist alt-Right members who famously started to use it as a hate symbol, claiming that the gesture represented the letters “wp,” for “white power.”
Is that why Santos oddly flashed it?
Had he simply made the sign with one hand, like the woman below, it would have been widely assumed he was innocently giving McCarthy the equivalent of a “thumbs-up.”
However, while expressing affirmation with his right hand to signal his vote in support of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for House Speaker on Thursday, Santos made another overt gesture with his left hand.
What the woman above does is normal, but what Santos did is quite odd.
The Twitter account of the media outlet The Intellectualist insists that Santos made a “White power gesture.”
“So we’re just gonna accept a Congressman Santos,” said Rafael Shimuvov, a Jewish political and cultural broadcaster.?
“We’re just gonna make a law to prevent it in the future and accept a man who completely lied his way into power? And is now openly flashing white supremacist symbols in the House?”
For those who think I’m overreacting, Universal Orlando Resort, last September, settled a lawsuit with two families that alleged an employee in a costume used the gesture to communicate hate while posing for photos taken with Black and Latino children, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
Santos has come under heavy scrutiny lately for excessively lying about his past. For instance, he lied about graduating from Baruch College and New York University, previously working for Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, and the location of his residence.
Moreover, he’s provided no proof that his grandparents escaped the Holocaust and that his mom was killed during the September 11 terrorist attack. In addition, he admitted to fraudulently cashing checks in Brazil.
Did Santos purposely signal the “okay” gesture as a form of hate? And have you ever seen anyone gesture that way with both hands?
