Everything is stupid. Over 450 former Jeopardy! contestants signed a letter demanding an apology after recent winner Kelly Donahue allegedly flashed a white power sign.
Yes, the hand gesture in the above photo is supposedly a white power sign:
Tuesday, April 27, was a more widely felt misstep. During his on-camera introduction, Kelly made a gesture with his hand that he has since claimed was an indication that he had won three games. He had, on previous episodes, indicated with one finger and two fingers that he had won one and two games, and no reasonable person would have interpreted those gestures differently. However, this gesture was not a clear-cut symbol for the number three. He held his thumb and forefinger together with his other three fingers extended and palm facing inward, and he tapped his chest. This, whether intentional or not, resembled very closely a gesture that has been coopted by white power groups, alt right groups, and an anti-government group that calls itself the Three Percenters. In a public Facebook post that has since been deleted, Kelly states, “That’s a 3. No more. No less.” His public Facebook profile also featured a cover photo of Frank Sinatra making a similar gesture. This was either erased or made private on Wednesday morning, along with hundreds of public comments on his few “Jeopardy!”-related posts. Regardless of his stated intent, the gesture is a racist dog whistle. Some of the first people to notice this were not affiliated with “Jeopardy!” in any way — they were viewers who couldn’t believe what they’d seen, captured it on video, and shared it to Twitter. Among them were people of color who, needless to say, are attuned to racist messaging and not appreciative that the show allowed this symbol to be broadcast.
The group also complained that Donahue “has not publicly apologized for the ramifications of the gesture he made.” They imply he meant it as a racist dog whistle because if they “misconstrued” the gesture then he should apologize and “disavowal of any connection to white supremacist doctrines.”
Guess what he. Donahue did just that on Facebook.
Snopes even debunked this stupid conspiracy, especially since he didn’t make the gesture in the “OK” sign people have made a white supremacist sign now:
We note that in this case, Donohue wasn’t even necessarily making the “OK” gesture because his palm was facing his chest and his thumb and forefinger appeared to be tucked in:In context, it appeared to be nothing more than a gesture signifying his status as three-time winner, and there was never any evidence offered to the contrary. However, on April 29, Donohue posted a statement on Facebook in which he stated, “I reject and condemn white supremacy and all forms of bigotry for the evil they are,” and added, “I deeply regret this terrible misunderstanding.”
Even the ADL said people shouldn’t assume people are using it as a white power sign “unless other contextual evidence exists to support the contention.”
The former contestants also had a problem with Donahue answering a clue with the word Gypsy instead of Roma or Ramani.
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