Swastika-45 protest art elicits visceral reactions

Following the violence in Charlottesville involving white supremacists, a powerful piece of art spread at protests and through social media feeds.

The artwork resembles a Nazi swastika, except it's the number "45" — for the 45th President of the United States Donald Trump — with the international symbol for "No," a red circle with backslash.

Austin-based artist Mike Mitchell created the image with the intention of it being used as "protest paraphernalia," originally posting it on Instagram Feb. 9. Charlottesville sent its popularity surging.

Google searches for the query "45 swastika" are up more than 1,400% this month. Some Trump opponents have made it their profile pictures — and GQ's Keith Olbermann tweeted to his 1.1 million followers early last week.

"I've been sent a lot of pictures of local newspapers with it on the cover, buttons and homemade signs," Mitchell said. "I just got an e-mail from someone who made a quilt out of it."

Like the image itself, the message behind it is simple.

"We don't have to tolerate, and we won't tolerate, intolerance," Mitchell said. "If you act like a Nazi, we're going to treat you like one."

Supporters of Donald Trump balk at the comparison.

Sheriff David Clarke, who campaigned for Trump, said after Charlottesville that the president "does not have a racist bone in his body." 

And even some people who oppose Trump note the gut-punch that the use of swastika iconography can elicit.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of global social action for of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, credits the creativity behind Mitchell’s art, but disputes playing off a symbol connected to genocide.

“You’re stealing the moral lesson that the swastika is supposed to impart,” Cooper said. “It is the symbol of ultimate evil.”

New York City activist Eugene Lovendusky, 32, agrees that “it packs a punch” — but that is why he defends using it at an Aug. 14 protest near Trump Tower.

“If you feel Mike Mitchell's 45 swastika design goes too far, then it is doing its necessary job precisely, concisely and perfectly,” he said.

It's not the first comparison to the Nazis

President Obama also faced protest signs and billboards comparing him to Adolf Hitler, particularly from Tea Party activists.

Nazi imagery has been used in a variety of ways as a form of political speech, said Ryan Lenz, a senior investigative writer with the Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit legal advocacy organization that tracks hate groups. 

Even in popular culture, calling someone “a Nazi” has been a way of teasing them as being tough — recall Grey’s Anatomy’s use of “the Nazi” nickname for Dr. Miranda Bailey or Seinfeld’s “soup Nazi.”

Lenz says the use of imagery such as adding a Hitler mustache to an image or calling someone a Nazi may have been done as a joke, but the tone it strikes now is different.

"For political cartoonists, or for activists or even politicians to employ Nazi imagery, in recent months, it has quite a literal message whereas previously it had a comedic edge," said Lenz.

However, in the case of the swastika, Lenz says it carries a "tremendously horrific" context. "It is no longer a historical marker. It is a currently relevant symbol."

Swastika use is on the rise, but among those who understand it least

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.