'These People Aren't Coming From Norway': Refugees in a Minnesota City Face a Backlash

[Demovictory9]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/20/us/politics/minnesota-refugees-trump.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Politics

‘These People Aren’t Coming From Norway’: Refugees in a Minnesota City Face a Backlash
As more Somali refugees arrive in St. Cloud, white anti-immigration activists have pressed an increasingly explicit anti-Muslim agenda.


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During a meeting of about 10 C-Cubed members in April at the Faith Lutheran Church in St. Cloud, Mr. Palmer steered a free-flowing discussion that began by comparing abortion access to the Holocaust and moved on to the city’s so-called refugee problem, and what the group could do to address it. Almost all of those present voiced some support for Mr. Trump. Others said that markers of progress were more interpersonal, and they would only be comfortable in their community if the Somali-born refugees converted to Christianity.

One woman, who declined to give her name after the group discussion, bemoaned the city’s so-called no-go zones, or the areas where white residents said they felt so uncomfortable with the Somali-American presence that they would not return — a shopping mall, a community housing center and Beaver Island Trail, a hiking area that borders the Mississippi River.

“They were just —” she said, searching for the words to describe the offending behavior of the Somali-Americans. “They were just walking around.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/20/us/politics/minnesota-refugees-trump.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Politics

[cagefreesoylentgreen]

1. If they're not comfortable

If they’re not comfortable being the minority in a shopping mall or something, they’re the one with problem.

— signed, the guy who is usually the only Asian in the room.

Edit: autocorrect strikes again

[sl8]

2. "... just walking around" on hiking trails? In shopping malls?!

Just who the hell do these immigrants think they are?

[struggle4progress]

10. eeek! Next they'll be driving to work and shopping for groceries!

[Celerity]

3. 'some white residents had come to see themselves in a fight for survival against Somali refugees'

Absolute open, naked white nationalism and pure hate.

[cwydro]

4. I wonder how many POC lived in that area before the refugees came.

I always think of Minnesota as being pretty white bread, but maybe I’m wrong.

[uncle ray]

5. central MN, St. Cloud area is/was very white.

i graduated high school from a small town very near there 20+ years ago. my high school had perhaps 600-700 students, and exactly one black family, and zero latinos.

[cwydro]

6. Yeah, that's what I thought. Huge culture shock when people have never lived around those who

are different from them.

We in the south have lived together for years.

[riversedge]

7. OMG!! They made a MAGA hat specific to St. Cloud!!

?quality=90&auto=webp

[NewJeffCT]

8. I used to cover high school & college basketball as a part time job in the early 90s

this was in addition to my regular job, but there were times when I was one of a very few white people at a basketball game and I never felt uncomfortable.

Heck, I remember once, I drove with a friend to see a high school game in (gasp) Harlem in NYC and the two of us, plus one other white guy and one of the three referees were the only white people in the gym that had at least 500 people in it. While I'm not a small guy, I'm also not going to be mistaken for The Hulk, either. Nobody threatened me or intimidated me or anything. We went there, saw the game, wrote some notes about the game, and talked about the game while we were there, and then left. No problems.

[bullwinkle428]

9. So the locale for the next Chump rally has now been determined!

[TeamPooka]

11. That Becky is going to call the cops on black people "just walking around." How dare they?

[MineralMan]

12. Faith Lutheran Church in St. Cloud is a Missouri Synod Lutheran Church

Those Missouri Synod Churches are very conservative, very white, and have congregations full of Republicans.

By contrast ELCA Lutheran Churches in Minnesota are more liberal, and wouldn't have done this.

Both Minneapolis and St. Paul have large populations of Somali immigrants, but not so many Missouri Synod Lutheran churches. St. Cloud is way different.