Universal Florida has been hit with a $30,000 lawsuit after their Despicable Me Gru allegedly "flashed a White supremacy sign". The 'OK' hand gesture, which involves making a circle with your index finger as the others point up, was adopted by white supremacists in 2017 and was quickly added to <a href="https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/okay-hand-gesture">a list of hate symbols</a> as a result. The incidents took place in February and March 2019 when a Universal Orlando actor dressed as the popular cartoon character made the sign in front of two biracial children. Watch a full news report about the alleged incident below:  [[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9diMcFXAmb8]] <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9778507/Families-sue-Universal-Orlando-30K-claiming-actor-used-white-power-hand-gesture-photos.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Daily Mail</a> reports that the lawsuit was originally filed in Orange County on June 23. "He openly and pointedly displayed towards them a universally-known and universally-used hate symbol that indicates white power," it stated. "This white power hand signal has become openly and widely used to express hatred towards a segment of the population-based upon a person's race, color and national origin, and it has prevalently and commonly been known as a hate symbol for years." Despicable Me characters are pictured below on a float at the theme park. <img class="wp-image-1263117580 size-full" src="https://img.vt.co/2021/07/Lawsuit-Universal-1.jpg" alt="Despicable Me characters at Universal Studios." width="759" height="517" />[[imagecaption|| Credit: Alamy / RSBPhoto1]] In one photograph of the incident, the actor can be seen in costume making the sign on a young girl's shoulder. The lawsuit states that the girl in question had planned to show the picture to her classmates, but she didn't because "a man did a bad thing to her because he did not like her because of her race and color." [[twitterwidget||https://twitter.com/RushReads/status/1179748077697028097]] Tiffiney Zinger, the mother of the girl, told <a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/10/01/universal-orlando-resort-fires-despicable-me-actor-after-ok-symbol/3791483002/">USA Today</a>: "We just wanted to take them to see the minions. Do something special for our family and this person ruined that special warm feeling." A Universal spokesperson told <a href="https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2021/07/09/families-sue-universal-orlando-after-actor-made-white-power-ok-gesture-posing-with-girls/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Click Orlando</a> that the actor has been fired as a result of the photographs, however, his identity has not been publicly disclosed. In the video below, the actor makes the White supremacy sign again:  [[youtubewidget||https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9diMcFXAmb8]] According to the lawsuit, the family is seeking compensation on the ground of the young girl suffering "mental anguish, loss of dignity, loss of innocence, emotional distress, humiliation, embarrassment, and loss of enjoyment of life" and adds that the park violated Florida Civil Rights Act of 1992. Upwards of $30,000 in damages are now being saught. <h6>Featured image credit: Alamy / Ian Dagnall</h6>

Universal Florida hit with $30,000 lawsuit after Despicable Me Gru ‘flashes White supremacy sign’

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