Pepe the Frog is a popular meme that has been circulating the internet since 2005. Created by artist Matt Furie and used in his comics, the meme picked up popularity. It became popular specifically on sites such as 4chan, Tumblr and Twitter. Since its rise in popularity, the usage of the meme has taken a drastic turn.

During the 2016 election, the meme was associated with President Donald Trump’s campaign and was made a hate symbol by the alt-right movement. Alt-right, and one of their members Richard Spencer, have continually used these memes as a forefront for their campaign and beliefs.

Images resembling Pepe have come out with anti-Semitic messages including Pepe donning a Hitler mustache and his usually message, “Feels good man” is replaced with “Kill Jews man.” Junior Skylar Weilert said that the meme is now unusable to her.

“It’s definitely strange how a meme, of all things, is being used for a political statement,” Weilert said. “Once you use it for something like that it, it’s dead. It loses its value.”

Alt-right is often commented as a white supremacist group, and their usage of the meme has resorted in the media calling it a hate symbol.

Freshman Parker Dixon said that most people consider the whole situation as a joke.

“When people talk about white supremacy, a lot of the time they are just kidding,” Dixon said. “There’s a video of a person in a KKK outfit and he says ‘I can’t understand you, go back to where you came from. White power.’ A lot of people say that as a joke. In my opinion, all the people I know use white supremacy a joke but you can never be sure.”

Now referred to as “Nazi Frogs”, the use of Pepe memes has declined and the Anti-Defamation League has included it as a hate symbol in their data base.

Junior Sara Rohleder said she doesn’t know much information about alt-right but she knows how its viewed in the media.

“Alt-right is bad movement,” Rohleder said. “Like I said, I don’t much about it but all I hear is negative connotations.”

The original comics Pepe was featured in ended in 2012, but with it turning into a meme the character has stuck around. Junior Micheal Hernandez has been a fan of the Pepe meme since its rise in 2015. Hernandez said he didn’t even know what alt-right was and didn’t know of the meme’s current stance.

“Pepe is a meme that I have enjoyed for a long time,” Hernandez said. “It’s weird that its now considered a hate symbol. I always thought that it was just a funny meme.”

Rohleder said that the Pepe memes aren’t used other than the alt-right movement.

“It’s not used on social media anymore,” Rohleder said. “It’s beating a dead horse at this point to use it as humor.”

The usage of the memes in the group has brought to question the seriousness of the group. Hernandez said that even though the meme has been used as a hate symbol, he will continue to use it.

“I don’t consider it as a hate symbol,” Hernandez said. “I’ll still use it. I mean it’s just a meme.”

18agonzalez@usd489.com