As Election Arrives, Donald Trump Supporters Rally Around Anti-Semitic Pepe the Frog Meme
Image by Nikki Casey
By Sam Kestenbaum November 8, 2016
With just hours before the election, online supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump are frantically posting about Pepe the Frog, the controversial online meme designated as a hate symbol by the Anti Defamation League.
“One more day,” one Trump supporters who goes by Vendetta Vidame, wrote on Twitter, posting a meme of Pepe overlaid on a painting of Paul Revere. “We need every single Pepe back up on Twitter. Make it green again!”
Other supporters followed suit, on both Twitter and other social media.
The final day.#RainOfFrogs unleashes it’s final formpic.twitter.com/OawhI4wO19
— Baked Alaska 3X™ (@bakedalaska) November 7, 2016
Not all uses of Pepe are bigoted, the ADL noted in September, but a prominent subset of Pepe memes — some of them resurfacing hours before the election — are “centered on racist, anti-Semitic or other bigoted themes.”
Some posted pictures of Pepe as Trump attacking his opponent Hillary Clinton.
Others reposted explicitly anti-Jewish and violent memes, the type of images that prompted the ADL to label the meme as a frequently hateful image.
Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
