Pitzer in the News 2007-2008 Academic Year

Professor Susan Phillips Quoted in Boston Globe on Gang Hand Signs

Professor Susan Phillips was quoted on the meaning of gang hand sign gestures in a story about Boston Celtics captain Paul Pierce who was fined for making a menacing gesture.

Signs of the times

What Paul Pierce's hand gesture - and his $25,000 fine - say about the fast-evolving world of gang signs
By Drake Bennett | May 4, 2008

THE SEQUENCE, NEAR the end of the Boston Celtics' Game 3 playoff loss last Saturday, has been endlessly replayed over the past week: Celtics captain Paul Pierce, after being taunted by Atlanta Hawks rookie Al Horford, walks grimly toward the Hawks' bench during a timeout. As he does so, he raises his right hand and makes what looks like a tipped-over OK sign - palm down, forefinger and thumb joined in a ring, the rest of the fingers extending away from him - before teammate Brian Scalabrine corrals him and leads him away.

By Monday the NBA had decided Pierce's hand sign was a "menacing gesture," and fined him $25,000 for it. The league has not gotten into specifics, but the problem, most agree, was that what Pierce did looked like a gang sign...

...Hand signs find their way into other signs of gang affiliation as well, says Susan Phillips, an anthropologist at Pitzer College in California. Graffiti often has hand-sign imagery in it, as do gang tattoos. Gang members (and their many unaffiliated admirers) performing symbolic dances like the Crip Walk, in which they spell out words and names with their feet, often accompany themselves by stacking...

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