On Monday night, celebrity elites made their way to New York City for the annual Met Gala. Most years, the headlines coming out of this event revolve around the outlandish and exorbitantly expensive outfits.
But this year, the most shocking part of the night was much darker.
During her appearance on the red carpet, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flashed a hand sign that has been described by many on the left as a symbol of white supremacy.
Hillary Clinton flashes the “white power” gesture at the Met Gala. Hiding in plain sight. pic.twitter.com/3EqRIQ28QK
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) May 3, 2022
You may be thinking, “I thought that was the hand sign meaning ‘OK.’” But according to Clinton’s own party, you would be incorrect.
According to leftist outlet NPR, this gesture was officially classified as a “symbol of hate” by the Anti-Defamation League in 2019.
The Jewish civil rights group cited an increase of people using the sign to mean “white power,” with the three raised fingers representing a “W” and the index finger, thumb and forearm representing a “P.”
Ridiculous as this may sound, the left has used this new interpretation of the “OK” sign to suggest Republicans are actually closeted white supremacists.
For example, when former President Donald Trump made the traditional “OK” symbol during a 2019 speech, leftists pounced.
Trump makes a hand gesture while saying AOC’s name pic.twitter.com/2266fEvlWE
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 23, 2019
While the notoriously woke Aaron Rupar was a bit subtle in the above tweet and left the interpretation of the hand gesture up to the audience, some outlets were more blunt.
Indy100 reported on the moment with the headline, “Trump makes alleged ‘white power’ hand signal while talking about [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez].”
Rolling Stone was less accusatory. The outlet’s headline read, “Why Did Trump Make the ‘OK’ Sign While Talking about AOC?”
Nonetheless, the subheading of the article made sure to note that while the hand sign traditionally meant “OK,” it had “taken on some uglier meanings in recent years.”
The not-so-subtle implication was that Trump used the sign to mean “white power” while discussing a Democratic lawmaker of Puerto Rican descent.
In reality, this is all ridiculous, and the “OK” hand sign does not imply that the person using it is a white supremacist. But if leftists want to apply this interpretation to Trump, they would be dishonest not to apply the same interpretation to Clinton.
Will leftists treat Clinton’s gesture the same way they treated Trump’s?
Yes: 6% (1 Votes)
No: 94% (15 Votes)
Given recent history, though, it is much more likely that leftist outlets will assure readers that Clinton had no bad intentions using the sign. After all, Snopes covered for then-candidate Joe Biden when he made the hand gesture in 2020.
When Biden made the gesture, Trump’s campaign asked whether Democrats would investigate his intentions.
Did Joe Biden dog whistle with the OK sign during his Wisconsin interview?
Will Democrats demand an investigation? pic.twitter.com/gFkMq4ssxa
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 22, 2020
Snopes quickly put out a fact-check and said the campaign “falsely suggested” Biden used the white power sign, even though the account only posed a question and never explicitly accused Biden of using a symbol of hate.
“Reporter Kia Murray asked Biden to make a closing statement to voters in the state, addressing any concerns they might have about socialism and increased taxation,” Snopes wrote.
“In his response, Biden used the hand gesture twice, once with each hand, to illustrate his assertion that massive corporations and Trump himself have in the past paid ‘zero’ in taxes.”
You see, when Biden makes the hand sign, he is given the benefit of the doubt. When Trump makes it, he is immediately painted as a white supremacist.
Similarly, if history is any indication, fact-checkers will quickly assure everyone Clinton did not make the white power sign.
Who knows? Maybe this very article will be labeled “disinformation.”
