You’re about to read a strange story, a case of mistaken interpretation that went beyond absurd, ultimately taking on a life of its own. In December 2017, during a White House internship class photo with President Trump, I was accused of making a racist hand sign. The reality is that I was emulating President Trump’s famous “OK” hand sign that he uses when speaking. To say that I had no idea of the insanity that was about to ensue would be a vast understatement.
This series of events began when I applied for an internship at the White House during my senior year at Emory University. I chose to apply for the position as a shot in the dark chance to meet Donald Trump and have a cool story to tell my friends. Little did I know my wish would be granted tenfold.
The internship itself was uneventful, but the media fire-storm that followed was not. In the course of a few days I went from minding my own business in Chicago to being cast into the national spotlight as an alleged racist. Now that the dust has settled and I’ve had some time to properly reflect on the events, I would like to explain why the accusations are false.
Let me be clear, when I made the OK hand sign in the photo with the President Trump, the only “meaning” of the gesture was to imitate one of Mr. Trump’s speaking mannerisms. At the time the photo was taken I was unaware of the supposed alternate (and ultimately untrue) meaning of the hand sign.
Obviously we can see that I made the OK hand sign in the photo, but my intent is the real issue. In fact, the supposed racist meaning of the sign began as an internet hoax by the website 4chan. Their goal was to convince gullible people online that Trump’s iconic OK hand gesture was actually a secret racist hand sign. Apparently it worked; otherwise, you wouldn’t be reading this now.
The controversial class photo was taken in the fall of 2017. On December 11, 2016 I sent a Snapchat to my friends, in which I can clearly be seen making the OK hand sign in imitation of President Trump. It was not until early 2017 that 4chan started the OK hand sign hoax.
To reiterate, I thought the hand sign was only related to Trump. Above is a picture from December 2016 showing me making the hand sign. This was at least one month before I could have possibly known about the alternate meaning. It is unlikely that in less than a year I came to learn the secret meaning of this hand sign and proceed to announce to the world in a photo with the President that I was a white supremacist. It is more likely that I was simply behaving foolishly and was horsing around in a picture with Trump when I shouldn’t have been. It was stupid and immature, but I don’t think the punishment I received matched the crime. Was I trying to make a joke to show my friends? Yes. Was I secretly signaling white supremacists? No.
You may ask, what’s to say that I couldn’t have become radicalized in the year between the December 2016 photo and the White House internship photo in the autumn of 2017? That’s a fair question, but I’d like to present you with a strong piece of counter evidence. Just months before I was accused of making the OK hand sign with racist intent, I worked on an art project with two African American classmates at Emory University. The three of us made an inflatable sculpture referencing the Black Lives Matter movement to show solidarity with African Americans who had been killed by the police. Two pictures of the art project are in the gallery of images above.
Would someone who made a hand sign with racist intent have worked on a project like this to support fair treatment of African Americans just 3 months earlier? No. This is the opposite of what a racist would want. In fact, I support the rights of every human being, and I would never make common cause with racists.
This whole experience taught me some important things about human nature, namely that some people will not hesitate to lie and obfuscate to achieve their ends, without regard to collateral damage to others’ reputations. Lesson learned.