As events continue to unfold nationally, many in our community are once again feeling the weight of rhetoric that targets and dehumanizes people of color. Recent comments from the president have caused deep hurt, particularly here in Minnesota where they were directed at our beloved Somali community, after attacks have already been underway in our Latino, Black, and Indigenous communities for months, years, and decades as well.
I am heartbroken for the Minnesota Somali community to have been targeted by our president with hateful rhetoric rooted in fear and division. I stand with one of our local community leaders, Iman Yussuf Abdulle who said, “The president’s tweet cannot divide us and it cannot change who we are.”
My connection with the Somali community began more than a decade ago, when I had the honor of working with local Somali elders, faith leaders, and business leaders on an advisory council as we sought to start our first culturally responsive Autism Day Treatment program. Their guidance shaped not only the program but me. I witnessed firsthand how a community that has endured displacement, loss, and hardship draws on deep wells of resilience, generosity, and entrepreneurial spirit to build a better future for us all.
Over the course of more than 20 years, Somali Minnesotans have strengthened our state in extraordinary ways—as legislators, business owners, teachers, therapists, lawyers, healthcare workers, and so much more. Their leadership and contributions are woven into what makes Minnesota vibrant, innovative, and compassionate.
It has been one the most treasured honors of my career to earn the trust of Somali colleagues and community partners, and to work alongside them to build a culturally responsive Autism Day Treatment program that reflects and respects Somali cultural gifts.
To my Somali colleagues: you have my deepest respect and admiration. I stand with you against any rhetoric that is hateful, harmful, and untrue. Your leadership, courage, and commitment to our state has brought richness, depth and beautiful diversity that has made Minnesota a better place to live and grow.
It is with this spirit of gratitude for our diverse nation, one that has opened its arms to all of its immigrant populations for hundreds of years, immigrant populations whose cultures, languages and traditions have expanded our understanding of who we can be. It is not our sameness, but our differences that make us stronger, wiser, and more compassionate.
And so, today and every day, St. David’s stands with our Somali neighbors, with our Latino neighbors, with our Black and Indigenous neighbors. Together we remain—strong and resilient, joyful and unafraid.