The #Bowlcut symbol is associated with the 2015 attack carried out by white supremacist Dylann Roof at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Following the attack, many white supremacists attempted to distance themselves from it or claimed that it was a “false flag” operation intended to suppress the momentum of the white supremacist movement. Some of Roof’s defenders even attempted to portray him as a saint.
Since 2017, however, an increasing number of predominantly younger white supremacists have not only expressed approval of Roof’s attack, but have openly portrayed him as a hero or even as a “saint.”
Roof’s admirers frequently use his distinctive bowl haircut to refer to themselves and to like-minded followers. This includes using the word “bowl” in slogans and coded expressions such as “Bowltrash” and “The Final Bowlution,” as well as collective terms such as “Bowl Gang” and “Bowlwaffen Division.” They may also use slang expressions such as “take the bowl pill” or “if you don’t respect the bowl, you pay the toll.”
Roof supporters also create and circulate memes related to him online, including depictions of Roof as a saintly figure with a halo around his head. Even more common are memes featuring Roof’s bowl haircut, either on its own or digitally superimposed onto the heads of other people. In one commonly circulated image, Roof’s haircut has been placed on a shield designed to resemble the insignia of military units of the Waffen-SS in Nazi Germany.
More recent white supremacist mass killers, including Robert Bowers, who carried out the October 2018 attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh, and particularly Brenton Tarrant, the Australian white supremacist responsible for the March 2019 attacks targeting mosques in New Zealand, have also attracted attention from white supremacists who circulated memes glorifying them.
EXAMPLES
