All the symbols depicted in the hate symbols database must be evaluated in the context in which they appear. Few symbols represent just one idea or are used exclusively by one group. For example, 100% is often used as an amount or an expression and it is also used by some white supremacists as shorthand for "100% white." Similarly, other symbols in this database may be significant to people who are not extreme or racist. The descriptions here point out significant multiple meanings but may not be able to relay every possible meaning of a particular symbol.

Hate on Display / Shield Wall Network

Group Status: Current

The Shield Wall Network (SWN) is a small white supremacist group based in Arkansas started by longtime white supremacist Billy Roper, who had previously belonged to neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan groups and for a time was the leader of his own white supremacist organization, White Revolution.

SWN, which started operations in early 2017, is Roper’s latest effort to head a group of his own; it has the ostensible goal of establishing a white ethno-state in the Ozarks. Roper established a “uniform” for members of SWN consisting of a black button-up work shirt featuring SWN patches, camouflage or black pants, and black boots.

SWN’s patch features a Greek lambda symbol—it looks like an upside-down “V”—against a red background; Roper used a very similar design for the logo of White Revolution, his previous group.

Ancient Spartans displayed the lambda on their shields at the Battle of Thermopylae in the 5th century B.C (it stood for Lacedaemon, another name for Sparta). White supremacists and other western chauvinists in the United States and Europe place considerable symbolic significance on this ancient battle between the Greeks and Persians, which they view as the defense of Europe from an alien invasion from the Middle East. The lambda is also used by Identitarian groups.