The “Spartan Up” hand gesture will be retired as a San Jose State University tradition because it closely resembles the “white power” hand gesture, SJSU President Mary Papazian announced in a campuswide email Thursday.
According to the tradition’s page on the SJSU website, the Spartan Up gesture mimics a Spartan head using your fingers, forming a helmet with your thumb and index finger. The idea is to curl your remaining three fingers over the top of the “helmet”, mimicking a feathered plume.
“We all agree that the gesture has become part of the fabric and footprint of our University, however when the gesture is used improperly, it can be offensive to some members of our University family,” SJSU Athletics Director Marie Tuite stated in an email to the Spartan Daily.
Tuite said when the gesture was misinterpreted as an OK sign and not the proper gesture, the improper sign created a division on campus.
“It was timely and appropriate to make the decision to no longer use the hand gesture associated with ‘Spartan Up.’ ”
Scott Pierson, former SJSU marching band director, first instructed band members, cheerleaders and fans to create the Spartan head gesture in 1990 to accompany the “Procession of the Spartans” marching song for every pre-football game, according to a Washington Square Alumni magazine blog published in 2017.
“A New Traditions working group represented by students, faculty and staff will explore and recommend new traditions to further strengthen our Spartan spirit,” Papazian wrote in the email.
Blake Sasaki, senior associate athletics director for external relations and strategic revenue generation, named the gesture “Spartan up” nearly 20 years later, saying it communicates a sense of identity and pride that connects everyone from the 18-year-old freshman to the 80-year-old alumna, according to the alumni magazine blog.
This OK hand gesture in 2017 acquired a new and different significance thanks to a hoax by members of the website 4chan to falsely promote the gesture as a hate symbol, claiming that the gesture represented the letters “wp,” for “white power," according to the Anti-Defamation League’s website.
“The “OK” gesture hoax was merely the latest in a series of similar 4chan hoaxes using various innocuous symbols; in each case, the hoaxers hoped that the media and liberals would overreact by condemning a common image as white supremacist,” the website reads.
The removal of the gesture is only part of many changes SJSU plans to enact over the next 30 days along with supporting grassroots efforts to organize activities which address institutional racism as well as any issues with the University Police Department.
“We will create an advisory board—one with a broad and diverse membership reflecting the breadth of our campus community—to begin a deep-dive with our University Police Department into the effectiveness of overall operations including policies, protocols and community engagement strategies,” Papazian wrote.
But that’s not all Papazian said she wants to address.
The email included: broadening recruitment areas where more underrepresented students, in particular Black students, may benefit from a SJSU education, increasing the number of Black faculty, improving training for staff and management on white privilege, racial oppression and active listening and more.
The email comes a day before the 155th anniversary of Juneteenth, a day that commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S.
Papazian urged all members of the SJSU community to reflect on the urgent need for racial justice and the need for systemic change within the school system.
“I want to emphasize that this is only the beginning, not the end, of our focus on addressing systemic racism at San José State University,” Papazian wrote. “Our work will not conclude when the current protests and demonstrations happening nationwide have subsided.”
