A Major League Soccer trainer was fired for flashing the ‘OK’ hand sign in a photo

D.C. United’s head athletic trainer, Reade Whitney, has been fired for allegedly making a controversial hand gesture.

Driving the news: The soccer team D.C. United announced on Friday the termination of their head athletic trainer.
* Reade Whitney was fired following a team photo showing him with an attempted “OK” hand gesture, known to be increasingly used by white supremacists.
* The club emphasized that it has no tolerance for discrimination of any kind.

The intrigue: The “OK” hand gesture has shifted in meaning recently.
* Although traditionally used to indicate well-being, it has been more recently adopted by white supremacist and far-right groups.
* Both the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center note the distinctly new use of this gesture.

Additional suspensions: Two players of the same team are on paid administrative leave while under investigation.
* Players Taxi Fountas and Nigel Robertha have been suspended while Major League Soccer investigates potential policy violations.
* This event happened shortly after the firing of Reade Whitney, but it’s unclear if the two incidents are connected.

View original article on NPR

This summary was created by an AI system. The use of this summary is subject to our Terms of Service.

Contact us about this post

Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *