Nebraska Cornhuskers alter mascot Herbie Husker to avoid White supremacy link
The Nebraska Cornhuskers altered its cartoon mascot to ensure no associations with White supremacy. In the original logo, Herbie Husker is making an OK hand sign that has had a benign reference to “white power” for a long time now.
"We just didn’t even want to be associated with portraying anything that somebody might think, you know, that it means White power," said Nebraska’s Athletic Department’s Licensing and Branding Director Lonna Henrichs.
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In the original logo, Herbie Husker is making an OK hand gesture with three straight fingers making a ‘W’, and the circle formed next to an extended finger make a P sign which connected the football team with White supremacy.
Nebraska Athletics said that the concern about the hand gesture was brought to their attention by their apparel provider, among others. "That hand gesture could, in some circles, represent something that does not represent what Nebraska athletics is about," it said. And to avoid that insinuation Nebraska Athletics decided to move forward with a revised Herbie Husker logo.
"We made that change as quick as we could. The process of changing the logo began in 2020 along with updated brand guidelines in July 2020,” Henrichs said. The OK sign of the cartoon mascot from the 1970s was changed to Herbie making a No. 1 sign. “The revised logo is now the only Herbie Husker mark available to licensees," Henrichs added.
The OK hand gesture is listed as a hate symbol in Anti-Defamation League. "A common hand gesture that a 4chan trolling campaign claimed in 2017 had been appropriated as a symbol meaning ‘White power.’ Used by many on the right — not just extremists — for the purpose of trolling liberals, the symbol eventually came to be used by actual White supremacists as well. Caution must be used in evaluating instances of this symbol’s use," the ADL said.