Regardless of the motivations of the young men at the Army Navy game, here’s a good rule of thumb: If you are using such a gesture because you think it’s funny to pretend that you’re a white supremacist, you just might be one.
White supremacy is a serious problem in our military, according to a poll of military members themselves, and the bipartisan defense appropriations bill mandates a new report on extremism within the ranks. But the as-yet-undefined gesture at the game reminds me first of the kind of thing we’re seeing far too often from the same generational cohort of those midshipmen and cadets, their fellow American college students.
Even as right-wing media portrays universities as hotbeds of politically correct censorship and the Trump administration seeks to use the power of the federal government to censor left-wing speech, white supremacist activity on college campuses has reached unprecedented levelssince groups like the Anti-Defamation League began tracking it.
