Hate on Display™ Hate Symbols Database

 

This database provides an overview of many of the symbols most frequently used by white supremacist groups and movements, as well as a variety of other groups and movements. It is one of ADL's many resources related to signs, symbols and codes which also include an antizionist hate resource, a coded hate resource and the memetic violence field guide.


 

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, 100% is often used as an amount or an expression and it is also used by some 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.

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Crazy White Boy

Hate Symbol
Crazy White Boy
The term "Crazy White Boy" (as well as its initials, CWB) is a phrase used generically by some white supremacists (often in tattoo form) to identify themselves.  It is also commonly used as a name for white gangs.  There have been a number of Crazy White Boy/s gangs in different places around the United States, in the streets or in prisons, over the years.  Most are small, locally-oriented, and unconnected to other, similarly named groups.  Variants of this term include…
Read more about Crazy White Boy

Peckerwood

Hate Symbol
Peckerwood
ALTERNATE NAMES: Wood, Woodpile, PWThe word "peckerwood" originated as an African-American slang term for "woodpecker" in the 1800s, but by the early 1900s began to be applied as a racial epithet against whites, with a meaning similar to the term "white trash." In the second half of the 20th century, in prison environments in Texas, California, and possibly elsewhere, the word peckerwood, originally used to refer to white prisoners generally, began to develop a more specific association with…
ALTERNATE NAMES: Wood, Woodpile, PW
Read more about Peckerwood

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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, 100% is often used as an amount or an expression and it is also used by some 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.

Hate on Display is a trademark of the Anti-Defamation League.