U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses as hate symbols

The U.S. Coast Guard will no longer classify the swastika — an emblem of fascism and white supremacy inextricably linked to the murder of millions of Jews and the deaths of more than 400,000 U.S. troops who died fighting in World War II — as a hate symbol, according to a new policy that takes effect next month.

Instead, the Coast Guard will classify the Nazi-era insignia as “potentially divisive” under its new guidelines. The policy, set to take effect Dec. 15, similarly downgrades the definition of nooses and the Confederate flag, though display of the latter remains banned, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

The German ban of Nazi symbols

The German Strafgesetzbuch (StGB; English: Criminal Code) in section § 86a outlaws use of symbols of "unconstitutional organizations" and terrorism outside the contexts of "art or science, research or teaching". The law does not name the individual symbols to be outlawed, and there is no official exhaustive list. However, the law has primarily been used to suppress fascist, Nazi, communist, extremist and Russian militarist symbols. The law, adopted during the Cold War, most notably affected the Communist Party of Germany, which was banned as unconstitutional in 1956; the Socialist Reich Party, which was banned in 1952; and several small far-right parties.

A noose. It’s simply the loop at the end of a rope, under a running knot, which tightens as it’s pulled. And yet it has the power to spur shivers of terror.

In America, the hangman’s noose has come to symbolize a deplorable act of brutality, along with unbound fear and hatred towards African Americans. It’s a reminder of America’s dark history of racial violence – a history that NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace and others will tell you in 2020 doesn’t feel very distant at all.