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.

233 Results

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Blood Drop Cross

Hate Symbol

ALTERNATE NAMES: Ku Klux Klan, MIOAKGroup Status: Active (in that there are many active Ku Klux Klan groups) For the past century, the primary symbol related to Ku Klux Klan groups (other than Klan robes themselves) is what Klan members may call the MIOAK (an acronym for "Mystic Insignia of a Klansman"). It is more commonly referred to as the "Blood Drop" Cross. It appears as a square white cross in black outline against a circular red background. In the middle of the cross is what appears…

ALTERNATE NAMES: Ku Klux Klan, MIOAK

Blood Tribe

Hate Symbol

Blood Tribe is a neo-Nazi group that uses a logo featuring the German word “Blut” (blood) written with runic characters.

Blue Eyed Devils

Hate Symbol

Group Status: Legacy (the group is no longer active but some symbols may remain as tattoos, graffiti, etc.) The term "blue-eyed devil" is a racial epithet originating in Asia directed against people of European ancestry. Some white supremacists have adopted the term in recent decades and may refer to themselves as blue-eyed devils. In 1995, a white power music band emerged in Delaware that called itself the Blue Eyed Devils. The band created a distinctive logo consisting of a rounded…

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 - most notably as the name of an international racist skinhead group. Additional Images:

Boots and Laces

Hate Symbol

Racist skinheads prefer wearing steel-toed workboots, typically with red or white shoelaces laced a certain way.

ALTERNATE NAMES: Red Shoelaces, White Shoelaces

Bound for Glory

Hate Symbol

Group Status: Legacy (the group is no longer active, but some symbols may remain as tattoos, graffiti, etc.) Bound for Glory is the name of a longstanding white power music band (dating back to 1989) from Minneapolis. It is popular among white supremacists. The main symbol associated with the band is a Thor's Hammer containing the band's initials. Also common are the band's initials in or superimposed over an Iron Cross. Both images derive from albums released by the group. As of 2025, the…

Bowlcut/Dylann Roof

Hate Symbol

The “Bowlcut” is an image of a bowl-shaped haircut resembling the one sported by white supremacist mass killer Dylan Roof. People who use the “bowlcut” image or other “bowl” references admire Roof and call for others to emulate his racist murders.

Brenton Tarrant Imagery

Hate Symbol

White supremacists turned the image of mass shooter Brenton Tarrant into a meme to celebrate his act and encourage others to commit similar violence.

Brotherhood Forever

Hate Symbol

ALTERNATE NAMES: Tennessee Aryan BrotherhoodGroup Status: Active Brotherhood Forever is a racist prison gang based in Tennessee that is also known as the Tennessee Aryan Brotherhood, according to prison officials. Its symbol consists of its name above and below SS lighting bolts. Sometimes these may appear within an Iron Cross symbol or shield symbol. Gang members may also use numeric codes such as 26 (substituting letters for numbers, the 2 and 6 stand for B and F,…

ALTERNATE NAMES: Tennessee Aryan Brotherhood

Brothers of White Warriors

Hate Symbol

Group Status: Active Brothers of White Warriors is a New Hampshire-based white supremacist prison gang. Its most common symbol is an Iron Cross inside of which usually appear the group's initials, jail bars, and a swastika, although the swastika can also appear below the Iron Cross and there are other variations. Additional Images:

Burning Cross

Hate Symbol

The image of the burning cross is one of the most potent hate symbols in the United States, popularized as a terror image by the Ku Klux Klan since the early 1900s. Cross-burnings (called "cross-lightings" by Ku Klux Klan groups, to make it seem as if they are not destroying a Christian cross) have long been used as a traditional symbol by Klan groups, used both in Klan rituals as well as in attempts to intimidate and terrorize victims of Klan groups. So widely associated with racial…

Burning Neo-Nazi Symbols

Hate Symbol

Neo-Nazis have adopted the Ku Klux Klan practice of symbolic burnings, substituting swastikas, othala and life runes, triskeles and the Celtic cross for the traditional cross burned by Klan members.

Celtic Cross

Hate Symbol

ALTERNATE NAMES: Odin’s Cross, Sun Cross, Wheel CrossThe white supremacist version of the Celtic Cross, which consists of a square cross interlocking with or surrounded by a circle, is one of the most important and commonly used white supremacist symbols. Although usually called a Celtic Cross by white supremacists, its origins date to the pre-Christian "sun cross" or "wheel cross" in ancient Europe. Norwegian Nazis used a version of the symbol in the 1930s and 1940s. After World War II,…

ALTERNATE NAMES: Odin’s Cross, Sun Cross, Wheel Cross

Confederate Flag

Hate Symbol

The Confederate flag is a common white supremacist symbol. Learn more about its use by non-extremists, as well as its recognition as a hate symbol.

COORS Family Skins

Hate Symbol

ALTERNATE NAMES: Comrades of our Racial StruggleGroup Status: Legacy (the group is no longer active, but some symbols may remain as tattoos, graffiti, etc.) COORS Family Skins (the word COORS is an acronym for "Comrades of our Racial Struggle") is a racist skinhead group whose members are primarily based in southern California. They use a logo consisting of an Othala rune combined with a runic symbol, but they also occasionally appropriate the logo for Coors Beer. Additional Images:

ALTERNATE NAMES: Comrades of our Racial Struggle

Crazy White Boy

Hate Symbol

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…

Creativity Movement

Hate Symbol

ALTERNATE NAMES: World Church of the Creator, WCOTC, COTCGroup Status: Active Ben Klassen, a former Florida state legislator, started the white supremacist Church of the Creator in 1973, portraying it as a "religion" for white people, although it was essentially just a pseudo-religion. A few years after Klassen's 1993 suicide, white supremacist Matt Hale rebuilt the group, branding it the World Church of the Creator. In the early 2000s, Hale and his group lost the right to that name in a…

ALTERNATE NAMES: World Church of the Creator, WCOTC, COTC

Crew 1488

Hate Symbol

Crew 1488 (sometimes called Organization 1488) is a small racist prison gang based primarily in Alaska, though it has a small presence in Colorado. Its primary symbol consists of a swastika intertwined with an Iron Cross, with 14, 88 and SS lightning bolts inside the Iron Cross.

ALTERNATE NAMES: Organization 1488

Crossed Grenades

Hate Symbol

ALTERNATE NAMES: DirlewangerThe crossed grenade emblem signifies the Waffen SS unit most commonly known, after its commander, as the "Dirlewanger Brigade" (later, the 36th SS Division). Oskar Dirlewanger (1895-1945) was an SS officer involved in the Holocaust and anti-partisan actions in World War II, including the murderous suppression of the 1944 uprising of the Polish Home Army in Warsaw. Even within the Waffen SS, both Dirlewanger and his unit had a reputation for sadism,…

ALTERNATE NAMES: Dirlewanger

Crucified Skinhead

Hate Symbol

The crucified skinhead image is a longstanding symbol used by the entire skinhead subculture (i.e., both racist and non-racist or anti-racist skinheads). Skinheads often use it to convey a sense of persecution or alienation or that society is arrayed against them. In isolation, the crucified skinhead symbol itself cannot be described as a hate symbol. But racist skinheads often adorn their versions of the crucified skinhead with other hate symbols or, in many cases, replace the cross with some…

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