Hate on Display™ Hate Symbols Database

This database provides an overview of many of the symbols most frequently used by a variety of white supremacist groups and movements, as well as some other types of hate groups.

214 Results

Aryan Brotherhood of Texas

Hate Symbol

The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (which is independent from and has no relationship to the "original" Aryan Brotherhood present in the California and federal prison systems) is one of the largest and most violent white supremacist prison gangs in the United States.

ALTERNATE NAMES: Texas Aryan Brotherhood, ABT

Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (hand sign)

Hate Symbol

The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, a large and violent racist prison gang, uses a hand symbol consisting of a raised index finger and raised ring and little fingers, signifying the numbers 1 and 2. Substituting letters for numbers 1 and 2 stand for A and B, or Aryan Brotherhood.

Aryan Circle

Hate Symbol

The Aryan Circle is the second-largest white supremacist prison gang in Texas and one of the largest such gangs in the United States. Its most common tattoo, known as a "shield" or "patch," consists of a square oriented to form a diamond shape. Inside the diamond is typically a swastika and the initials AC; it is also common to include SS lightning bolts.

ALTERNATE NAMES: AC, The Diamond

Aryan Circle (hand sign)

Hate Symbol

The Aryan Circle is one of the largest white supremacist prison gangs in the United States. Its primary hand sign consists of holding up the thumb and the middle, ring, and little fingers of one hand, signifying the numbers 1 and 3 (which stand for AC). One can also hold up the little finger and the middle and index fingers, plus the thumb.

Aryan Cowboy Brotherhood

Hate Symbol

The Aryan Cowboy Brotherhood is a small white supremacist prison/street gang based primarily in Minnesota and Kentucky. Its main symbol consists of a helmeted and winged skull with the initials ACB.

Aryan Fist

Hate Symbol

The Aryan Fist symbol is a white supremacist symbol adopted from the "black power fist" used by black nationalist groups in the 1960s and 1970s.

ALTERNATE NAMES: White Power Fist, White Fist

Aryan Knights

Hate Symbol

The Aryan Knights are a white supremacist prison gang based primarily in Idaho. They often use the initials AK to identify themselves with tattoos or writing.

Aryan Nations

Hate Symbol

Aryan Nations is a decades-old American neo-Nazi group with a long history of criminal activity. Its logo consists of a Wolfsangel symbol in which the vertical line is replaced by a sword.

ALTERNATE NAMES: Church of Jesus Christ Christian

Aryan Nations (hand sign - Tennessee prison gang)

Hate Symbol

The largest white supremacist prison gang in Tennessee is Aryan Nations (a different group than the neo-Nazi group of the same name). Aryan Nations gang members use a hand sign they sometimes refer to as "bolts up" or "bolts to the sky," consisting of forming the hand into a pistol shape and pointing it upwards or outwards.

ALTERNATE NAMES: Bolts Up, Bolts to the Sky

Aryan Nations (Tennessee prison gang)

Hate Symbol

The largest white supremacist prison gang in Tennessee calls itself Aryan Nations, a name borrowed from the neo-Nazi group of the same name, though the two are separate groups. Its primary symbol or "shield," is a tattoo featuring a rounded Celtic Cross, with different symbols in each of the quadrants of the cross.

Aryan Renaissance Society

Hate Symbol

The Aryan Renaissance Society is a small but long-lived white supremacist group that has resembled both a racist skinhead group and a prison clique at times. It has had members from a variety of places, but many came from Texas and New Jersey. Its logo is a phoenix image superimposed with a lightning bolt and a runic symbol.

Aryan Terror Brigade

Hate Symbol

The Aryan Terror Brigade is a racist skinhead group with members in the United States and Europe. The logo of the group is in the form of a Waffen SS divisional insignia outline, with a man's head and a gun, a wreath, and the initials ATB inside the outline. The shield has black, white, and red stripes (the colors of the Nazi flag).

Aryan Warriors

Hate Symbol

The Aryan Warriors are a longstanding racist prison gang based in the Nevada prison system. Members have created a variety of tattoos, but many of them consist of the gang's name or initials, or have some sort of Viking-related imagery, such as horned helmets or axes.

Atlantic City Skins

Hate Symbol

The Atlantic City Skins are a longstanding New Jersey-based racist skinhead group. Their logo consists of a rounded Celtic Cross on top of a row of skulls, which may have the initials ACS on them.

Atomwaffen Division

Hate Symbol

Atomwaffen Division is a neo-Nazi group that emerged in 2016. “Atomwaffen” is the German word for atomic weapons and the group’s logo features a radiation warning symbol on a Waffen SS divisional insignia shield.

AYAK

Hate Symbol

AYAK is Ku Klux Klan shorthand for "Are You A Klansman?"

Blood & Honour

Hate Symbol

Blood & Honour is an international neo-Nazi/racist skinhead group started by British white supremacist and singer Ian Stuart.

Blood Drop Cross

Hate Symbol

The "Mystic Insignia of a Klansman" (the Blood Drop Cross) is the primary symbol related to the Ku Klux Klan. Learn more about this iconic hate symbol.

ALTERNATE NAMES: Ku Klux Klan, MIOAK

Blue Eyed Devils

Hate Symbol

The term "blue-eyed devil" is a racial epithet directed against people of European ancestry that originated in Asia. Some white supremacists have adopted the term for themselves, including a white power music band that appropriated the name and created a distinctive logo consisting of a rounded Celtic Cross out of which a man points a gun.

Blut und Ehre

Hate Symbol

"Blut und Ehre" is a German phrase that translates into "Blood and Honor;" it was popularized by the Nazi Party (as a Hitler Youth slogan and elsewhere). Since World War II, this German phrase (and even more so for its English translation) has commonly been used by white supremacists in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere.

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Submit a Hate Symbol to ADL at hate-symbols@adl.org

All the symbols depicted here 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, the Confederate Flag is a symbol that is frequently used by white supremacists but which also has been used by people and groups that are not racist. 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.

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