Somalis ARE NOT Garbage, Diversity IS a Strength

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

This past Tuesday at one of his rare cabinet meetings, Donald Trump, who was in the midst of castigating Afghan immigrants, suddenly switched gears and began disparaging Somali immigrants.  During his tirade Trump referred to Somalis as "garbage" and said they should go back to where they came from -  Somalia - a country that Trump describes as the worst on earth with "no laws, no water, no military, no nothing."

Trump also gets off on railing about Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a Somali immigrant who represents Minnesota in Congress.  Omar is one of several Democratic politicians whom he likes to refer to as "communist," a popular political slur from the 1950's when Trump was in elementary school.

Later his administration announced that it was expanding its war on immigrants in Democratic-led states and cities by sending Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents into Minnesota, the home of 86,000 Somali immigrants.  The Somalis will be the focus of ICE activities in Minnesota.

The mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul - the area where most of the state's Somali residents reside - are standing by their immigrant citizens as is Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota. 

The nationally known humorist, Garrison Keillor, is a native of Minnesota and is one of its better known native sons.  Keillor currently lives in New York City, but remains solidly connected to his home state.  In his internet column today Keillor discusses arriving at the Minneapolis-St Paul airport this week and the difficulty he was having struggling with his three suitcases.  Keillor, who is 83, said that he managed to get the attention of a Somali airport worker pushing a luggage cart  who immediately came to his rescue.  As they traversed the busy airport, the entertainer struck up a conversation with his helper and learned that over a thousand Somalis are employed at that facility.  (Trump likes to depict them as either being gang members or sitting at home drawing welfare.). 

Keillor refers to Trump's on-going false and negative depictions of Somalis as "racist slander," and race does seem to be a determining factor in whether this President deems particular groups of immigrants to be of value to our country - or social leaches and terrorists.   In January of 2018 during his first term in office, Trump showed his preference for white immigrants when said he would like to see more immigrants from Norway - while disparaging immigrants from Haiti and much of Africa which he referred to as "shithole" countries.  Donald Trump's own family is heavy with white immigrants - including his mother and two of his three wives.

But Somalis are "garbage" in Trump's worldview - all Somalis - even the one who rushed to help an 83-year-old man ferry his luggage across a crowded airport.

Don't worry America.  ICE will be relentless in its crusade to rid our land of it's foreign-born baggage handlers, hotel maids, landscapers, roofers, farm workers, military service members, hospital techs, teachers, computer techs, scientists, and all of those other freeloaders whose biggest crimes are looking different from real (white) Americans, having the ability to speak more than one language, and maybe practicing a religion that is different that the one the government seems to think we all should be supporting.

(Of course, the great national cleansing by ICE will not affect Elon and Melania.)

Donnie, some Americans speak garbage, you, for instance, but ethnic and racial groups of people are not garbage.  Diversity is a strength, despite what you and people like you would would force us to believe.

Lighten up, buttercup.