Group apologizes over hand gesture during MLK parade

Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation League, said while the OK gesture started as a joke on 4chan to “troll the libs,” its usage became more complicated when white supremacists, such as Richard Spencer, actually started using the symbol.

FORT WORTH, Texas — The Tarrant County Young Republicans apologized after a member made a hand gesture associated with white supremacy in a photo at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade in Fort Worth.

The Tarrant County Republican Party, which originally posted the photo, removed it from their Facebook page.

The photo showed a group of about 20 people posing with a Tarrant County Republican Party banner at Monday’s parade. In the background, a man is making the OK symbol, which the AntiDefamation League recognizes as a hate symbol.

The man in the photo was identified as Robert Coe. He is the chairman for precinct 1111 in Fort Worth, and Tarrant County Young Republicans named him “Young Republican of the Year” in December. Precinct chairs oversee voter registration and are elected every two years.

When asked about the photo, Coe told the Star-Telegram “that situation has already been taken care of.”

Coe hung up the phone and did not respond to further questions.

In response to a tweet about the photo, the Tarrant County Young Republicans tweeted, “It’s not a real white power symbol, he does that b/c he thinks it’s funny how crazy leftists get over a fake symbol. Nonetheless it was inappropriate/dumb, and we’ll be talking w/ him. Rest assured though, he is no white supremacist. Bit of a troll perhaps … but a good kid.”

The group removed posts from their Twitter and Facebook pages where they named Coe as the “Young Republican of the Year.”

Derrick Wilson, the Young Republicans chairman, said over the phone that he could not comment further on the situation.

Tarrant County Republican Party Chairman Rick Barnes said he spoke with Coe after seeing the photo, and the 20-year-old told him he did the symbol “as a spoof.”

“He denies any misgivings, but our position is that we were down here to support the parade and support the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and anything that did not fall in line with that, we consider to be absolutely wrong,” Barnes said.

Barnes said he does not think the symbol means anything, but said it was inappropriate for Coe to make it at the parade. He said the group had a conversation with Coe about “being mature and acting responsibly.”

The symbol, which looks like the OK hand gesture, became linked with white supremacy in recent years. Members of the website 4chan started to falsely claim it was a gesture symbolizing white power in which three fingers make a “W” and the thumb and index finger create a “P,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow at the ADL, said while the OK gesture started as a joke on 4chan to “troll the libs,” its usage became more complicated when white supremacists, such as Richard Spencer, actually started using the symbol.

For example, in March, the avowed white supremacist accused of killing 51 people in a New Zealand mosque flashed the symbol at a court appearance, the Washington Post reported.

Pitcavage described the gesture as “a nuanced situation in a world where people have lost a lot of their ability to discern nuance.”

“I can hardly think of a worse place to troll people with a symbol associated with white supremacy than at an MLK parade,” Pitcavage said about Coe. “Even taking them at their word, this is at best very poor judgment and in very poor taste.”

Pamela Young, lead organizer for the Tarrant County Coalition for Community Oversight, said the symbol showed “blatant disrespect” and is not a joke.

“It’s not about the white power sign; it’s about what’s behind it,” she said, adding the symbol represents bigotry and racism.

She said the Young Republicans’ response showed they did not take the issue seriously because they made excuses for Coe.

Roderick Miles Jr., who organized the MLK parade, said the symbol and “that type of imagery fly in the face of everything that Dr. King stood for.”

“We don’t support anything that would promote racism or anti-unity,” he said. “We stand vehemently opposed to anything that would try to divide us or separate us as a community.”

Miles, who is a staffer for Tarrant County Commissioner Roy C. Brooks, said he hopes the Young Republicans will discipline Coe or condemn his actions publicly.

Young said Coe’s actions may not have reflected the views of everyone in the photo, but showed that Republicans should examine their policies and party values such as economic equity, justice and welcoming the stranger and refugees.

“Don’t come to the parade next year if your values don’t align with Dr. King,” she said. “And not the ones that you cherry pick, that are docile, but the ones that he was murdered for.”