Dear Editor,

It happened again at the Inter-secondary School Sports Association/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships! The infamous “finger guns”.

While passing his opponent, St Mary’s College’s Te-Var Hammond directed the gesture at Dinthill Technical’s Javier Morrison in celebration of his victory. Morrison’s expression was one of shock and confusion as he felt the fingers of Hammond skim his cheek while still actively in the race.

A tweeter posted the video of the incident and used the Twitter post to lament the recurrence at this year’s staging of the highly anticipated, well-supported, and extensively media-covered annual event. Calls were again made for the organisers to finally put an end to this and other gestures identified as inappropriate for the context. Don Wehby seems to agree based on his reply to the tweet and his clear warning of GraceKennedy’s potential withdrawal of sponsorship for any future staging of the event given the displays of “indiscipline”.

Notwithstanding, sympathisers and supporters of these young athletes still argue that the use of the gesture is a legitimate form of celebration at Champs. Such individuals typically reference international athletes across different sports who utilise the sign in their celebrations. They express concern that there is unjustifiable bias against Jamaican athletes, particularly at the high school level, who celebrate in a similar manner. They further question the notion that the finger gun is innately wrong and thus inappropriate.

A simple search on the Internet will reveal that finger guns are a sign used to identify something as extremely funny, witty, or “cool” (impressively admirable). This means that when hanging out with friends one could use the finger guns, usually while laughing or smiling, to indicate that something said within the group was received as funny. Actors and comedians, such as Steve Carell in The Office, often use the hand sign in this way.

The sign is also used in response to praise or to communicate that they are worthy of admiration for an action or quality of theirs. To illustrate this, imagine an extremely arrogant version of James Bond who smugly winks at you, making a clicking sound while pointing his index finger with an upright thumb. In fact, one could argue that athletes who use the sign in celebrations do it for this reason, identifying their performance or contribution in the moment as so impressive they should be admired for it.

Finger guns have also been used to indicate disapproval of something said. Imagine Joey Tribbiani from the hit sitcom Friends saying something “stupid”. Chandler or Ross may respond to him by aiming the finger gun to their own heads, indicating that they need to shoot themselves for having listened to his comment. Sounds dark, right? The usage of the sign gets darker.

In some US states and school districts it is forbidden and illegal to make finger gun signs. It’s no wonder, considering their struggle with school shootings performed by former or current students of affected institutions.

Notice that senior international athletes who make use of finger guns in their celebrations tend not to aim it at their opponents. They opt instead to aim at a camera or their own fans. This may very well be a deliberate attempt to avoid misinterpretation of their intended use of the gesture. The popular phrase “avoid the very appearance of evil” best explains this.

Our high school athletes point finger guns at their opponents and “shoot” at them. This they do in a country plagued by violent crimes, not the least of which are the result of citizens’ inability and unwillingness to resolve conflicts civilly. To make the context even more concerning is the fact that our news outlets and social media platforms are riddled with reports and videos of children assaulting their teachers and schoolmates, some altercations ending in fatalities.

Indeed, contexts such as these are the reasons US states ban the use of the gesture, especially when pointed at someone specific, as it becomes increasingly difficult to rule it out as a genuine threat. Even if it were not intended to be a threat, there is the danger of perception on the part of the individual pointed at, thereby leading to a sense of insecurity.

This kind of celebration is far more nuanced than merely the result of an adrenaline rush associated with victory. Even if it is, that doesn’t render its usage in this way appropriate. Football players still receive yellow cards for removing their shirts when celebrating goals, despite that celebration obviously being the result of goalscoring ecstasy. We indeed need to respond to the trend, if only to teach our youth tact. Sometimes it’s not what you do but how you do it that creates the problem.

Kevonn Grant

High school teacher and debate coach

kevgrant20@gmail.com