KSTP-TV, January 21, 2019

A Minnesota high school where fans displayed a President Donald Trump re-election flag has pulled out of a basketball invitational hosted by a Minneapolis school on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The Jordan High School boys’ basketball team was scheduled to play Minneapolis Patrick Henry High School on Monday in the MLK Showcase at Minneapolis Roosevelt.

Some Jordan fans displayed a Trump banner when Roosevelt visited Jordan last week. Jordan is a rural, overwhelmingly white community. Roosevelt’s coach says his team is predominantly black.

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The Roosevelt boys basketball team also released the following statement regarding the incident:

“We’re really surprised by all the attention this is getting, but appreciate that Coach Walker started the discussion. The issue is what our President represents to many people of color, whether that’s what the Jordan fans knew or not. Looking back, we now wish we had the opportunity to talk to the Jordan players about what that banner represents to us here at Roosevelt. Then we could also tell them why we stay in the locker room during the National Anthem.”

“The protest of the anthem and the lack of handshaking [we don’t do that in our conference] in pregame were not meant to be disrespectful. We get that that’s hard for some people to understand. The only way we can help each other understand is through a dialogue.”

“This all comes down to people trying to see one another’s point of view — and we’re coming from a place that recognizes a history of oppression for people of color in the U.S. {snip}”

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