The Reason The University Of Nebraska Altered Their Mascot
This, of course, was never Nebraska’s (or Herbie’s) intent. “That hand gesture could, in some circles, represent something that does not represent what Nebraska athletics is about,” said Lonna Henrichs, the Nebraska athletic department’s licensing and branding director. “We just didn’t even want to be associated with portraying anything that somebody might think, you know, that it means white power,” per The Hill.
When Henrichs was informed of this newer meaning, she responded by asking the department to change Herbie’s hand gestures to a “No. 1” symbol — one finger pointing upward. Nebraska merchandise going forward will be printed with the newer design.
The hand symbol wasn’t invented by a white supremacist group, according to the Anti-Defamation League, but by hoaxers on the site 4chan, who chose the hand sign exactly because it was common and innocuous. The idea was to try to paint a widespread gesture as a cancelable act — similarly, trolls tried to paint “dabbing” and even applauding as problematic.
In the case of the OK sign, however, the symbol was then actually adopted by white supremacists, putting the symbol in uneasy territory. The ADL classifies it as a situationally dependent hate symbol even as, it acknowledges, “most usage of it is completely innocuous.”
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