Kelly Donohue: 'Jeopardy' Contestant Reveals Truth Behind Controversial Hand Sign
"Jeopardy!" contestant Kelly Donohue successfully reached his four-day stint on the game show. But he continuously gets slammed at the same time.
In response to people's comments, the bank examiner made sure to clear his name after his final appearance.
On Tuesday, Donohue posted a now-deleted Facebook post clarifying that he did not make a racist hand gesture on air.
As quoted by boston.com, the contestant insisted that his hand only showed number 3. He also expressed how horrifying it was for him to read such claims when he condemns white supremacy and racism.
"People who know me personally know that I am not a racist, but for the public at large it bears repeating: I am not a racist and I reject and condemn white supremacy and all forms of bigotry for the evil they are," he added.
Donohue said that he would never try to use anything to promote the "disgusting agenda."
In the end, he insisted he only wanted to show how many victories he already had. Still, he regrets sparking such misunderstanding before assuring that he did not mean to hurt anyone with that gesture.
Currently, "Jeopardy!" representatives have not addressed the matter yet.
Kelly Donohue Surely Made the "OK" Sign
Despite his explanation, more than 500 former "Jeopardy!" contestants criticized the producers for choosing to air the clip.
They revealed that the bank examiner surely did not raise his fingers to show number three in an open letter. It then described how Donohue held his thumb and forefinger together with other fingers extended before tapping his chest.
"This, whether intentional or not, resembled very closely a gesture that has been coopted by white power groups, alt right groups, and an anti-government group that calls itself the Three Percenters," the statement on Medium said.
The former contestants also called out the game show for not addressing Donohue's behavior.
The hand sign is included in the Jewish civil rights organization's "Hate on Display" database.
Per ADL's Center on Extremism, Oren Segal, the sign carries the hate message that is also being used on memes. Know Your Meme's website also explained that 4chan users created the prank to flood social networking sites with "OK" hand sign to support white supremacy.
