What percentage of Metro Mobility bus drivers are Somali? Trump claimed Somalis contribute nothing to the United States, yet how many Minnesotans are readily aware of the fact that on any given day, it will most likely be a Somali Metro Mobility driver that will have safely transported their elderly, terminally ill, and disabled loved one or family member to their medical appointment, pharmacy visit, local grocery store, or day program?
Consider this, your elderly grandmother navigating life with dementia depends on services provided by a large number of Somali and East African immigrant Metro Mobility bus drivers to live a normal life where she will literally hold onto the driver’s arm to walk into her home to avoid falling on snow or ice during Minnesota’s harsh winters.
Are those same Somali-American bus drivers we trust to transport our most vulnerable people in our communities cunning scam artists in disguise?
Somalis often accept lower-paying jobs with mediocre benefits to serve their communities here in the Twin Cities while paying their taxes to assist some of the most vulnerable and developmentally challenged people. Their willingness to accept such conditions of employment benefits their employers allowing for-profit subcontractors to maximize profitability at the expense of low-wage immigrant labor.
The question is:
How much press have Somali-American immigrants received from media networks here in the Twin Cities for their efforts in providing Metro Mobility services to ADA certified adults before and during the reality of Nation Trump?
Somali immigrants and the cohesive communities they establish are centered on traditional family values. They have restored vibrancy to rural communities like Faribault where many are employed at the local Jennie-O poultry processing plant. Halal stores and tea shops opened in formerly vacant storefronts in downtown Faribault transforming a once dead downtown into an economically renewed one. Did a Somali immigrant have a direct hand in the preparation of your Thanksgiving turkey last November?
Outside St. Cloud in Cold Spring, Minnesota, 80% of workers at the Pilgrim’s Pride plant are Somalis where prepared foods are manufactured to feed the average American consumer. Imagine how disastrous it would be to our local and state economies if Trump actually had the authority to deport Somali citizens of the United States en masse by executive order? Labor vacuums would cause local economies to crash as assembly lines come crashing down to an abrupt halt.
According to Doctor Bruce Corrie of Concordia University in Saint Paul, the Somali Diasporic Community pays 67 million in local and state taxes each year going on to generate 500 million in annual income. Such figures reiterate truths largely overlooked, downplayed, and dismissed by xenophobes generally and Islamophobes specifically when evaluating the socioeconomic footprint of Somali immigrants here in Minnesota.
The reality is Somali-Americans have been our friends, neighbors, and coworkers going back to the early-1990s. Yet, Trump’s uninspired rhetoric of divisiveness has thrown out decades of neighborliness and community building for an opportunistic watershed moment of xenophobic condescension to appease his voter base.
Rather than feeding anti-Somali hysteria due to the Feeding My Future scandal, why not acknowledge and identify steps taken by Somali-Americans to fight against political corruption, communal decay, and urban poverty? What efforts can we organize together as Minnesotans to own fraud in the name of maximum transparency for the best interests of our state?
Fraud and government corruption are interwoven into the tapestry of American history. One of the earliest examples of both occurred in the 1790s during the Yazoo Land Fraud Scandal where state legislators were handsomely bribed to cheaply sell vast tracts of land to speculators in Georgia.
Rather than localize fraud to one watershed moment in Minnesota history, why not forge permanent partnerships with hardworking Somali-Americans to combat fraud as one mobilized whole in the name of restorative justice?
In Minnesota, we have the tendency to preach diversity, inclusivity, and equity without fully committing to each area beyond token concessions made in the name of political correctness.
The sooner we realize societal vices like government corruption and communal fraud are fundamentally human problems, the sooner we can start collaborating across a multitude of diverse community platforms to combat and ideally reverse both. This cannot be achieved without the full support and inclusive participation of Somali-Americans.
The New Columnist 