Pepe the Frog has been added to the Anti-Defamation League’s Hate Symbol Database. Pepe now has a home with hate symbols such as the Nazi swastika, burning crosses, and SS lightning bolts.

According to ADL, Pepe the Frog is a cartoon character that has become a popular Internet meme (often referred to as the “sad frog meme” by people unfamiliar with the name of the character). The character first appeared in 2005 in the on-line cartoon Boy’s Club, created by artist Matt Furie. In that appearance, the character also first used its catchphrase, “feels good, man.”

“In recent years, with the growth of the ‘alt right’ segment of the white supremacist movement, a segment that draws some of its support from some of the above-mentioned Internet sites, the number of ‘alt right’ Pepe memes has grown, a tendency exacerbated by the controversial and contentious 2016 presidential election,”

“Though Pepe memes have many defenders, not least the character’s creator, Matt Furie, who has called the alt right appropriation of the meme merely a ‘phase,’ the use of racist and bigoted versions of Pepe memes seems to be increasing, not decreasing.”

Hate on Display is also known as the Hate Symbol Database currently includes the Nazi swastika, the burning cross, “1488”, the Blood Drop Cross, the Confederate flag, the iron cross, Ku Klux Klan robes, a noose, the apartheid-era South African flag, SS lightning bolts, Stormfront’s logo, and now poor little Pepe.

Ben Garrison’s recent political cartoon brought a new player onto the stage of his imagination. He introduces Pepe the Frog as the sinister catalyst to Hillary Clinton’s coughing problem in a cartoon titled, “The Sinister Frog in Hillary’s Throat.”

If you have not heard of Pepe the Frog: the green, depressed-looking amphibian who has begun appearing in the mainstream media, you are about to. Hillary Clinton thinks Pepe is a racist. This frog has been very popular and is now taking center stage in the Presidential election for 2016.

Ian Miles Cheong at Heatstreet says Pepe is not racist and this is funny. Pepe the Frog made a big splash last year when celebrities posted their own Pepe memes and sites like BuzzFeed compiled thousands of his various forms, something we noted yesterday. Pepe is an apolitical meme that’s been used by everyone from gamers and YouTubers to celebrities and progressive bloggers. Like any other exploitable meme, Pepe has also been cast as a Nazi. But no single group or ideology has ownership of the meme.

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