Life is now a minefield of symbology. The Anti-Defamation League has identified the following common symbols as “hate symbols“. Shockingly, many of the symbols are in common, every day use.

• 100%
• 109
• 12
• 13
• 14
• 18
• 28
• 311
• 318
• 38
• 43
• “5 words”
• 511
• 737 (Who knew that Boeing is white supremacist organization?)
• 83
• 88 (The telegraphic abbreviation for “love and kisses” is now a hate symbol)
• 9%
• The Confederate Flag (while used by non extremists as a symbol of southern heritage and history, it is now defined as a white supremacist symbol)
• HSN (formerly known as Home Shopping Network, is now a racist gang symbol)
• The mathematical “not equal” symbol consisting of an equals sign with a slanted line through it is now a white supremacist symbol. As a computer scientist who was one class shy of a double degree in mathematics, this means writing math terms marks computer scientists and mathematicians as white supremacists.
• The “Okay” hand gesture
• Pit bull
• ROA, previously known in finance as “return on assets”
• Thor’s Hammer (yes, Avengers is a white supremacist movie)

There we have it – everyone is now an accidental white supremacist.

This movement to term common terminology as hate symbols was made possible by social media.