The West Point cadets and Naval Academy midshipmen flashing “okay” hand signs during the Army-Navy game did not mean to convey a “white power” message, the two service academies announced Friday.
Lee Atwater’s corpse just came in his casket.
Sure, Check,
Whatever you say …
We believe you
OT, but a bulletin from the Department of the Bloody Obvious…
Bullsh*t!
Post the names and photos of African-American cadets also playing this “game”, and we’ll go from there…
Can’t speak to what may or may not be true here, but I’m pretty sure if they had found “evidence of racist intent,” they wouldn’t tell us.
“The investigation found no evidence of racist intent.”
“BREAKING: Fox Announces No Rules Broken In Henhouse Incident.”
(“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to finish this delicious chicken dinner.”)
"unless other contextual evidence exists to support the contention.”
For real? Do we really have to make a fucking list of “contextual evidence” when it comes to white male military students and the history of military culture and the current climate of white nationalist authoritarianism? Sigh…
We can’t handle the truth…
Also,
Of course he did. Plus, it ain’t just white supremacy that has border patrol wanting a tighter “seal” that funnels all traffic through discrete access points that are under their control.
When cartels can’t get the drugs over the border in remote locations via tunnels or other means and are forced to go through checkpoints and manned border entry points, guess what they have to do. And guess what they DO do. And guess who they do it with…all the fucking time. Guess.
Given that congressional Republicans have just now quietly cut a stipulation in the Defense Authorization Bill requiring DOD to screen recruits for white nationalism, I think the message that the Naval Academy received from its funder tells us all we need to know:
Did the “background investigation” include a review of their social media accounts? Or did they just ask their roommate “Is the dude racist?”
What a weak response. None of the stories I’ve read indicate that the commanders have given stern orders to never, ever do stupid shit that could give anybody anywhere the idea that racism is tolerated in the military.
From the NY Times story – the notion that the game is “commonly played” at the academy does not give me huge amounts of confidence in the quality of individuals they are admitting.
A partly redacted copy of the Naval Academy’s preliminary inquiry found that the game was commonly played at the academy and in other military and civilian settings.
If you have participated in team sports, the punching game is totally commonplace (amongst dudes). I completely buy this explanation. I first saw it years ago with soccer/fútbol players. Edited for typos.
Uh…throw the satchels over the wall and injure unaware innocent Americans on the other side?
This is a total BS coverup.
This was not the ‘OK circle punching game’.
There was NO PUNCHING SEEN IN ANY VIDEO.
These were blatant flashes of the white power OK sign.
West Point et al higherups are complicit in the coverup.
Relax people!!!
This is a very common “game” in some parts of the military going back to the 80s. On my first day on station overseas one of my new peers flashed the sign next to his thigh, and I looked at it. He immediately laughed and punched me in the arm, and I immediately jammed him into an equipment rack because I had no idea about the game.
Someone stepped in and explained to me what my fellow airman was doing and we both apologized, although I still feel my apology was unwarranted, but comity was a higher priority in the moment, especially since I was the newbie.
It’s a stupid game, but some idiots still seem to play it. I spoke with someone recently who served on the same base several years later, and some idiots were still playing it.
The other thing is that we’re talking about the academies here. These are highly motivated and educated young people who earned their way into these two elite institutions. They are predominantly upper-middle class kids who have likely had no interactions with the white nationalist movement. The Army and some areas of the USMC have problems with white nationalists, but I would be beyond shocked if that level of bigotry existed at West Point and/or Annapolis.
My 2¢
Agree. Know the game. Played it myself once upon a day, but in these times I call Bullshit too.
I’m going to buy the Academy explanation here mainly because I’ve grown tired of the Reich-Wing shitting up what used to be our common language.