On Tuesday night, at a school board candidates' forum, one of the Republican candidates flashed a well-known white power hand signal throughout the entirety of his 30-second closing statement. David Brown, of Darien, CT, kept his left hand in the sideways "OK" position during his closing remarks, which were completely devoid of substance, by the way.

This hand signal has been designated a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center explains its origins and significance here.

I have questions.

Did Brown know that signal was a hate symbol?
Is he claiming he did not?
Is he saying he did not put his hand into that position intentionally?
If he knew it was a hate symbol, why did he use it? To troll the libs?

We don't know the answer to any of these questions, because the one person who asked about it publicly deleted his tweet, and the only response from the Darien GOP was predictable outrage at the accusation and cries of victimhood.

First, the Darien Democrats tweeted a screenshot, only subtly referring to the hand signal, then Sen. Bob Duff, CT State Senate Majority Leader retweeted it with a more direct question.

You won't see either of those tweets now, though, because the Democrats and Duff deleted them.

Why? Who knows. But we can get an idea of what happened behind the scenes from something the Darien Republicans posted on Instagram, that they have very much NOT taken down.

Oh, my goodness gracious. What's that the kids say nowadays? Hit dogs holler?

Who wants to bet Brown wasn't expecting to get called out, and when he was, the racist GOP circled the wagons around him to turn everything around and blame the DEMOCRATS for having the audacity to point out what appears to be Brown's overt signaling?

I mean, what kind of snowflakes do this? Isn't it a sign of maturity to explain yourself if there is a misunderstanding? Aren't deflection and faux righteous anger obvious signs of guilt? Don't screams of victimhood and calls for civility expose the GOP for the liars they are?

If, indeed, Brown was unaware of the OK signal being a hate symbol, how difficult would it have been for Brown to have issued a statement like the following:

"I was completely unaware that the position my hand was in is also a known hate signal. Thank you for calling it to my attention, I always seek to learn and improve my behavior so that I make sure not to harm people in our community. Now that I know better, I will not make that mistake again. I apologize."

Wouldn't that have been a much more graceful way to handle the situation? Isn't that what grown-ups do? Learn from mistakes? Especially in this town, where not two weeks earlier, the town's high school experienced a series of anti-Semitic, misogynistic, and homophobic incidents?

But no. They're DISGUSTED by how they've been TREATED by the DEMOCRATS. At some point, the Dems admitted to a mistake, which the GOP put in quotation marks,, for some reason, and the Republians want a sInCeRe aPoLoGy. There's the oh-so-tired whining about "divisiveness," as if pointing out white supremacy is worse than actual white supremacy. Likening the national political scene to "bloodsport" and calling it "tawdry," begging the Democrats not to bring such antics to the likes of bucolic Darien...OH THE DRAMA.

It would be f*cking comical if there weren't actual Black and brown people in Darien being hurt by this. To whom can we turn for actual courage and real talk in addressing this? The kids. I give you Darien High School's Black Student Union.

All these kids want is to feel safe and loved. They're telling us right there, in plain words. They saw what this Republican did. They saw the Democrats call him out initially. They saw those same Dems retract their statements, and refuse to pursue the matter at all.

Where are the adults for these children? The Republicans act like spoiled brats, and the Democrats act like terrified spineless sidekicks who just go along so they don't have to god-forbid experience any discomfort.

I mean, we expect the GOP to be racist bullies. Sadly, when the Democrats in power are white, they're more often than not the complicit enablers. Shame on all of them.

At least one white woman was willing to be quoted about Mr. Brown.

Sandy Filmer has lived in Darien, CT for 43 years. She had this to say. "Outraged and heartbroken that the town I’ve called home for 43 years has spawned this creep who is running for a Board of Ed seat. He does not belong here or anywhere."

Now if the rest of the town could get it together, or Brown could grow a spine and address the matter, perhaps they'd be able to do right by the kids.

The author reached out to the Darien Republicans, Darien Democrats, and Senator Duff through various channels, and not one has responded.