The OK sign is only racist if it's being used by racists to signal to other racists that they are racist. This remains true if you replace "The OK sign" with any other innocuous act or item.

These kinds of statements are the result of a wretched game of Telephone. "White supremacists are using the OK sign as an identifying signal" became "Crazy leftists say the OK sign is racist". It's an effective recruiting tool on the uninformed.

You said what I was trying to say a lot more succinctly.

While I am not condoning banning speech, your examples above compile into a pretty disingenuous take. While I'm sure an example could be found if you looked hard enough, I have never once heard of anyone crying 'racist' about normal people making the normal OK hand sign innocently.

I have, however, heard the term 'racist' accurately used to describe people making an inverted OK sign when said people happen to be standing at a Proud Boys rally, or by people who otherwise spend their time hanging out with, or trolling as, white supremacists. [^1]

Same deal with milk. It's only racist when it's being used as a symbol by people who are intentionally being racist:

> "One slide Dr. Novembre has folded into his recent talks depicts a group of white nationalists chugging milk at a 2017 gathering to draw attention to a genetic trait known to be more common in white people than others — the ability to digest lactose as adults." [^2]

That doesn't mean "milk is racist", or that drinking milk is racist; it means unabashed racists seem to enjoy co-opting common symbols as code for their secret clubs.

[^1]: https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/okay-h...

[^2]: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/us/white-supremacists-sci...

> While I'm sure an example could be found if you looked hard enough, I have never once heard of anyone crying 'racist' about normal people making the normal OK hand sign innocently.

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/sdge-worker-fired-ove...

Wait, milk?

These are just pranks made by 4chan and their ilk.

The circle of life on this sort of thing, I think, goes something like:

Come up with a contrived reason milk could be considered racist, film a video or whatever about chugging milk while making a racist screed, get criticized for being a weirdo, and then some reactionary clickbait site can have the headline "Internet user called 'racist' for drinking milk."

It is dumb, don't worry about it.

Didn't 4chan also create the OK hand sign racist as well? Now there are people who genuinely believe the OK sign is racist.

It is essentially the same prank, I believe the milk one is the even more absurd followup.

They spread the rumor that the OK symbol is racist.

Some people go to racist rallies and make the gesture.

Is it now a racist gesture? A gesture can't really be racist I don't think, it is the intent behind it. In the case of OK, it doesn't provide much extra information, right? If somebody is making it at a racist rally I guess it is a bit redundant. If somebody makes it while scuba diving I guess they are really indicating "OK."

The OK gesture was an effective pick because, it has mostly been supplanted by thumbs up to indicate all's good anyway. So it doesn't have much counter-pressure. I don't think milk consumption is going anywhere.

While intent should be what matters, that isn't the case for many people. There was a man who was cracking his knuckles and somebody took a picture of him. Apparently his hand was close to the OK sign and he was fired. It is getting to the point where intention does not matter.

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/sdge-worker-fired-ove...

People of European decent tend to be much better at digesting milk (lactose) as adults and there's a meme that if you can't chug a bottle of milk you have to get out. Or something silly like that. Turns out groups of people with ancestry in east Africa have the gene for lactose as well.

So, milk could become a symbol of this if used within that context. People are paranoid enough today that if a picture of someone enjoying a glass of a milk was published, they could assume it was a signal of this. And it could be, to be sure.

Apparently? Here's an article titled "Milk, a symbol of neo-Nazi hate" published "August 31, 2017" (not April 1):

https://theconversation.com/milk-a-symbol-of-neo-nazi-hate-8...

That could definitely happen. That would be kind of similar to how being called "communist" lost most of its power from overuse. In a generation or two, maybe even "nazi" will no longer be seen as an insult in parts of society.