All the symbols depicted in the hate symbols database must be evaluated in the context in which they appear. Few symbols represent just one idea or are used exclusively by one group. For example, 100% is often used as an amount or an expression and it is also used by some white supremacists as shorthand for "100% white." Similarly, other symbols in this database may be significant to people who are not extreme or racist. The descriptions here point out significant multiple meanings but may not be able to relay every possible meaning of a particular symbol.
ACAB is an acronym for an anti-police slogan, “all cops are bastards,” that originated in Great Britain in the 20th century. Originally used primarily in criminal-related contexts, by the 1980s the phrase and its acronym had spread to the punk and skinhead subcultures, as well as to anarchists. Because many early antifa activists were anti-racist skinheads or anarchists, it also came to be used by antifa. In more recent years, it has spread fairly broadly among left and far left circles. ACAB can also be represented with numerical substitutes, using the numbers 1312.
Most usage of ACAB is not associated with hateful contexts. However, as racist or white power skinheads emerged as a variant of traditional skinhead subculture by the late 1970s, they appropriated ACAB along with many other traditional skinhead symbols. By the 1990s at the latest, racist skinheads in the United States had embraced the term, including using it for tattoos and clothing.
As the racist skinhead subculture has declined in the United States after 2015, usage of ACAB by white supremacists has also decreased, though not disappeared altogether. The far-right boogaloo movement, which has strong anti-police views, has also occasionally used the term; some of its adherents are white supremacists but most are primarily anti-government extremists.
Some on the right and the far right have also appropriated the ACAB acronym but given it a different meaning, changing what it stands for to “all Commies/Communists are bastards” and imbuing the acronym with an anti-left thrust.
Because white supremacists make up only a minority of those who may use ACAB, particularly after the spread of the acronym during and after the 2020 protests over the death of George Floyd, the acronym should be carefully judged in the context of its appearance. One cannot assume that the mere appearance of ACAB on its own indicates a tie to or affinity with white supremacy or hatred.
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