Trump signs are dangerous

On Monday night a high school basketball game in the Kansas City area featured Center High School, from a predominantly black area of Kansas City, versus Warrensburg High School, a predominantly white high school from a suburb of Kansas City.

The Warrensburg student section has a tradition during player introductions which consists of the student body turning their backs on the opposing team during their introductions. School faculty at Warrensburg have frowned upon this tradition, saying it’s unsportsmanlike. Though, despite their disapproval they’ve never told the students not to do it.

So, Monday night when the Warrensburg students turned their backs on Center they didn’t do so for racial reasons, they just did what they always do. However, Monday night’s game featured a twist to the tradition when a Warrensburg student brought a Trump-Pence campaign sign and held it up during the introductions. This did not go well:

Trump signs do not signify universally-accepted symbols of racism. Right? After reading what Warrensburg superintendent Scott Patrick, who apologized for the sign, said to the Kansas City Star, I’m not so sure. Patrick said, “I think in this case, (the Trump sign) was really the difference in what took this from something that was unsportsmanlike to something that was insensitive, not necessary and inappropriate.”

What? Everything was fine: not insensitive, not necessary, not inappropriate, and certainly not racist until someone brought a Trump sign to the game?

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