Army and Navy launch internal investigations into controversial hand gesture captured on video
Source: CNN
(CNN)The US Military and Naval academies on Sunday launched internal investigations after cadets and midshipmen were captured on ESPN's pre-game show for the Army-Navy game making a hand gesture that some are interpreting as white nationalist and others are interpreting as innocent.
In a statement Sunday night, the Military Academy -- commonly known as West Point -- said its investigation is looking into the "use of hand gestures by a few Cadets" during the broadcast before Saturday's game.
"The United States Military Academy is fully committed to developing leaders of character who embody the Army Values. I have appointed an Investigation Officer...to conduct an administrative investigation into the facts, circumstances, and intent of the Cadets in question," Lt. Gen. Darryl Williams, superintendent of the academy, said.
Cmdr. Alana Garas, a Naval Academy spokeswoman, said in a statement earlier Sunday that "U.S. Naval Academy officials have appointed a preliminary inquiry officer to conduct an internal investigation into the hand gestures made during the ESPN College GameDay broadcast prior to yesterday's Army-Navy game."
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/15/politics/navy-internal-investigation-hand-gesture-video/index.html
More here, including photograph:
https://www.tmz.com/2019/12/16/army-navy-football-white-power-hand-signals-signs-investigation/
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Looks like they can see the camera display to make sure the camera picks it up. But we knew that from the "Go Army, beat Navy" mini-banner that they had. And the way they would do something then sit up straight as though to say, "Not me, no sir!"
Now, *what* was intended is the question. Trolling ("here, I can piss you off, imbeciles, by making you go all a-twitter over a meaningless gesture!"
or declaration of white power ("here, I'm going to show you that I think White Power's the way to go" .
Somehow, given the way they're playing to the camera and fooling around, it's hard to see the gesture as being dead serious or all that earnest.
Yesterday, when looking for a picture of this, I found four. Two showed the two cadets--the one in the video posted, then the female sitting next to him--making the gestures. Another screamed "look at the racism!" and showed a woman cadet with both hands up, fingers crossed. (Yes, the poster was so frantically trying to judge another that they seriously misunderstood a simple gesture). The fourth showed the gloved hand reaching between the two cadets in the video--dropping something, making some gesture, I can't make it out. Whatever it was, it had to be racist because racists were making it--and having concluded it was racist, well, there you go, proof they *were* racist.
