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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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  • Hate Symbols
    • General Hate Symbols
    • Hate Acronyms/Abbreviations
    • Hate Group Symbols/Logos
    • Hate Slogans/Slang Terms
    • Ku Klux Klan Symbols
    • Neo-Nazi Symbols
    • Numeric Hate Symbols
    • Racist Hand Signs
    • White Supremacist Prison Gang Symbols

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Skrewdriver

Hate Symbol
Skrewdriver
Skrewdriver, long defunct, is the British white power music band that essentially created white power music as a genre. The band, and its deceased leader, Ian Stuart Donaldson, remain held in the highest esteem by white supremacists.
Read more about Skrewdriver

Soldiers of Aryan Culture

Hate Symbol
Soldiers of Aryan Culture
Soldiers of Aryan Culture (SAC) is a large Utah-based white supremacist prison gang. The two symbols most commonly used by the gang are 1) the group's initials, SAC, and 2) a swastika interwoven with an Iron Cross.
ALTERNATE NAMES: SAC
Read more about Soldiers of Aryan Culture

Solid Wood Soldiers

Hate Symbol
Solid Wood Soldiers
The Solid Wood Soldiers are a Texas-based white supremacist prison gang. Their primary tattoo consists of the initials SWS, with the two S's represented by lightning bolts. Above the initials appears the image of a bear claw, with the number 4 in the middle and sometimes the letters HCRL.
ALTERNATE NAMES:
Read more about Solid Wood Soldiers

Sonnenrad

Hate Symbol
Sonnenrad
ALTERNATE NAMES: Black Sun The word “Sonnenrad” is German for “sunwheel.”  Generically, sunwheels constitute a large class of longstanding symbols that can vary significantly but which generally share the basic principle of several straight or crooked lines emanating from a central point or circle (thus being abstracted suns and sunrays).  Examples include sun crosses, triskeles/triskelions, kolovrats and swastikas, among others. Sunwheels of various kinds…

ALTERNATE NAMES: Black Sun

The word “Sonnenrad” is German for “sunwheel.”  Generically, sunwheels constitute a large class of longstanding symbols that can vary significantly but which generally share the basic principle of several straight or crooked lines emanating from a central point or circle (thus being abstracted suns and sunrays).  Examples include sun crosses, triskeles/triskelions, kolovrats and swastikas, among others. Sunwheels of various kinds appear in the traditional symbology of many countries and cultures, including Old Norse and Celtic cultures.

Most sunwheel designs are unrelated to hate or white supremacy, but some do have such associations in certain contexts, such as the swastika.  One specific sunwheel design, typically referred to as a “Sonnenrad” or “Black Sun” symbol, has a very specific association with white supremacy, having been invented by the Nazis in the 1930s. It first appeared as a mosaic in a castle in Wewelsburg in Germany that was owned and remodeled by Hitler’s SS.

Following World War II, neo-Nazis in Europe and elsewhere embraced the SS’s Sonnenrad symbol, giving it a new life.  In the U.S., its usage eventually spread beyond neo-Nazis to other types of white supremacists as well.  This Sonnenrad or Black Sun symbol consists of two concentric circles orbiting a center solid circle, with 12 evenly spaced lightning-bolt-like rays emanating from the center point.

While the center circle of the original design was filled or solid, modern white supremacists frequently swap out the solid circle for an additional hate symbol, often a runic symbol, swastika or some other neo-Nazi symbol.

Unlike many other types of sunwheel symbols, which may have a hate-related usage only in certain contexts, or not at all, the specific Nazi-derived Sonnenrad/Black Sun symbol is almost always used as a white supremacist symbol.

Read more about Sonnenrad

South African Flag (Apartheid Era)

Hate Symbol
South African Flag (apartheid era)
In 1928, a few years after unionization, South Africa adopted its first national flag, which consisted of a past version of the flag of the Netherlands combined with miniature flags representing the different colonies that came together to form South Africa. After the end of apartheid, South Africa adopted a new national flag in 1994, as the previous flag had come to symbolize the apartheid regime. Since 1994, white supremacists in South Africa and elsewhere around the world, including the…
Read more about South African Flag (Apartheid Era)

Southern Brotherhood

Hate Symbol
Southern Brotherhood
The Southern Brotherhood is a large, Alabama-based white supremacist prison gang. Read more about the Brotherhood's most common symbol, the shield tattoo.
Read more about Southern Brotherhood

SS Bolts

Hate Symbol
SS Bolts
White supremacy and the SS Bolts. Find out the history of the neo-Nazi SS Bolts, and the current usage of one of the most powerful hate symbols in history.
ALTERNATE NAMES: Cracker Bolts, SS Lightning Bolts, Lightning Bolts
Read more about SS Bolts

SS Divisional Insignia

Hate Symbol
SS Insignia
During World War II, Nazi Germany fielded nearly 40 divisions of the so-called Waffen (or armed) SS, creating a private army for SS leader Heinrich Himmler.  These divisions fought on every front of the war in Europe, often committing war crimes and atrocities.  After the war, the Nuremburg Tribunal declared the SS a criminal organization.  However, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists glorified the Waffen SS and eventually began to use the various divisional insignia of these…
Read more about SS Divisional Insignia

SS (hand sign)

Hate Symbol
SS (hand sign)
In the 2000s, white supremacists created a handsign intended to memorialize the Schutzstaffeln or SS of Nazi Germany, Hitler's secret police, political army, and concentration camp guards. The handsign utilizes both hands to make a lightning bolt symbol, as a pair of lightning bolts was the main symbol of the SS. Additional Images:
Read more about SS (hand sign)

St. Michael’s Cross

Hate Symbol
St. Michael’s Cross
St. Michael’s Cross is a white supremacist symbol that originated in Romania in the years before World War II as the symbol of the fascist Iron Guard movement.
ALTERNATE NAMES: Archangel Michael's Cross, Iron Guard
Read more about St. Michael’s Cross

Stormfront

Hate Symbol
Stormfront
Stormfront is the oldest and largest white supremacist website on the Internet. Its logo consists of a squarish Celtic Cross encircled by the phrase "White Pride World Whide."
Read more about Stormfront

Sturmabteilung

Hate Symbol
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung (or SA) symbol is the emblem of Hitler's brownshirted stormtroopers (Sturmabteilung or "storm units" in German).  The Sturmabteilung were paramilitary formations used by Hitler to intimidate political opponents and Jews before and after his rise to power in Germany.  It declined after 1934 when its leaders were murdered at Hitler's orders and was largely supplanted by the SS.  After World War II, some neo-Nazis, especially in Europe, turned to the…
Read more about Sturmabteilung

Supreme White Alliance

Hate Symbol
Supreme White Alliance
The Supreme White Alliance (SWA) is a hardcore racist skinhead gang based primarily in the Midwest. The gang has used a variety of symbols but the most common include a shield symbol with a laurel wreath and a dog or wolf; and a shield symbol containing a Wolfsangel, a Triskele and the number 43.
ALTERNATE NAMES: SWA
Read more about Supreme White Alliance

Supreme White Alliance (hand sign)

Hate Symbol
Supreme White Alliance (hand sign)
The Supreme White Alliance is a hardcore racist skinhead gang based primarily in the Midwest. Members sometimes use a two-handed handsign in which four fingers from one hand and three fingers from the other hand are used to represent the number 43. The gang uses 43 as a numeric symbol because the alphanumeric equivalents of the gang's initials (19 for S, 23 for W, and 1 for A), when added together, equal 43.
Read more about Supreme White Alliance (hand sign)

Swastika

Hate Symbol
Swastika
The swastika is an ancient symbol used in many cultures that was adopted by Adolf Hitler and turned into a symbol of hatred. Since then, the swastika has become perhaps the most notorious hate symbol in Western culture.
Read more about Swastika

SWP

Hate Symbol
SWP
ALTERNATE NAMES: Supreme White PowerSWP is an acronym for the white supremacist slogan "Supreme White Power." It seems to have originated on the West Coast, probably in California's prison system, though it has spread from there. Supreme White Power and SWP are both common prison tattoos. One popular version displays the words "Supreme White Power" in a circle around a swastika made up of battle-axes. Usually, below the swastika is a Viking ship. Additional Images:
ALTERNATE NAMES: Supreme White Power
Read more about SWP

Terrorgram

Hate Symbol
Terrorgram
Terrorgram is a white supremacist network formed to incite violent acts to bring about the collapse of society. It has used several logos, which generally include a Waffen SS shield.

Alternate Names: Terrorgram Collective, Terrorgram Network

Terrorgram emerged in the late 2010s as a loose international network of white supremacist individuals and groups, typically neo-Nazi in nature, seeking to promote violent acts in the service of white supremacist accelerationism. White supremacist accelerationism is a school of thought within the white supremacist movement that argues the only way to create a desired whites-only or white-dominated society is to destabilize and destroy current society through violence and disruption, then build a new society from its ashes. Terrorgram—taking its name from the internet platform Telegram, on which it conducted most of its activities—dedicated itself to accelerationist propaganda, glorifying white supremacist mass killers like Dylann Roof and Brenton Tarrant as “saints” and urging others to follow in their footsteps to commit terrorist attacks and hate crimes against minorities and other targets, such as infrastructure.  Their propaganda efforts included producing several lengthy and distinctively illustrated manuals with motivational screeds as well as ostensibly practical advice for would-be terrorists.

In 2024, the U.S. designated Terrorgram as Specially Designated Global Terrorists; later that year, the FBI arrested two key American Terrorgram leaders on a number of charges.  The arrests precipitated Terrorgram’s collapse as the network’s remaining members sought to avoid infiltration or identification.  However, Terrorgram’s digital publications are still in circulation among accelerationists, meaning that people can still encounter their symbols. Terrorgram logos imitate a Waffen SS divisional shield design, though with their own distinct symbology. One simply features a paper airplane, while a different logo depicts a swastika, an infinity symbol, and a ski mask. A third version features the swastika and ski mask along with part of a Sonnenrad symbol. 

Read more about Terrorgram

The Goyim Know/Shut It Down

Hate Symbol
The Goyim Know/Shut It Down
The phrase “The Goyim Know” is an antisemitic phrase portraying the ostensible reaction of Jews when their supposedly conspiratorial or manipulative misdeeds are revealed to the public. Often combined with “Shut It Down.”
ALTERNATE NAMES: Da Goyim Know
Read more about The Goyim Know/Shut It Down

The Happy Merchant

Hate Symbol
Happy Merchant
The Happy Merchant is a very common antisemitic meme popularized by the alt right, featuring a person with exaggerated stereotypically Jewish features and grasping hands, meant to convey a “greedy Jew.”
ALTERNATE NAMES: Jew Face, Merchant Face, Le Happy Merchant
Read more about The Happy Merchant

The Hated

Hate Symbol
Hated, The
The Hated is a racist skinhead group active in New Jersey, Florida, and elsewhere. Members use a variety of symbols but one of the most common is a white fist inside a cogwheel, with the number 14 and the words The Hated on the outside.
Read more about The Hated

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Submit a Hate Symbol to ADL at [email protected]

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. 

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