ICE targeting people who look like they're from Somalia is just about harrassing black people

[bigtree]

...as if you can actually distinguish people in this country as Somalis by their brown skin.

The (ICE) actions in Minnesota have targeted undocumented immigrants, as in other cities, but focused on Somalis in particular. The state is home to the largest diaspora of Somalis in the world. Roughly 80,000 people of Somali ancestry reside there, but the vast majority of them are American citizens or legal permanent residents.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/07/us/ice-minneapolis-somalis-immigration.html

...it's just like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told Jen Pasaki today:

Crime in virtually every every category
and virtually every neighborhood
throughout the city of Minneapolis is down
pretty substantially right now.
And so if we're talking about safety,
we're on board.
That's not what this is about.
This is about terrorizing people.
If they cared about safety, they wouldn't be going
after the dad that just dropped
his kids off at daycare,
is about to go work a 12-hour
shift who happens to be from Somalia or Ecuador.

...this new Jim Crow is sticking in this black man's craw. ICE is a modern day Klu Kluz Klan comprised of good old boys who think terrorizing brown people in this country is sport, now fully sanctioned and armed by the federal government for these raids on minority communities in a nightmare that rivials the vigilante violence of the past, indistinguishable only by the official embrace and encouragement by the President of the United States.

Btw, I don't go anywhere anymore. I just stay home. I'm effectively terrorized by my own country's government. I hate to admit this, but it's true. I'm too decrepit to risk an encounter gone wrong. Had to even sadly face up to an untenable risk to my health in any protest gone wrong.

Who's next? It's just a matter of time before most people in this country consider themselves effectively terrorized into changing their normal everyday behavior, not to mention any impetus or impulse they may have to disagree or dissent against the state.

Our politics is zero-sum today, a binary choice between an increasingly oppressive and repressive regime and their supporting republican party only concerned with protecting and defending their own power over the people in this country, and a Democratic party that has never had any impulse or agenda that relies on oppressing or repressing Americans.

It may not be a panacea or immediately effective in restraining this dangerous presidency, but our vote is our only direct lever to accountability of the people who would profess to lead us.

I have mused in the past about the state of brown skinned people in America at our nation's beginnings, and reflected on the lowliness that infected the African-American community with an entire nation regarding them as less than human, and treating them the same.

I also remember that my generation was the first to throw off the oppressive and repressiveness of Jim Crow as we took to the streets against withering attacks by police and others and convinced the nation to turn away from bigoted and racist lies about their African-American counterparts and relinquish the privilege white Americans had afforded themselves over their brown-skinned counterparts.

I also remember that there was a receptive White House in place under both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations which worked hand in hand with African-American community leaders to craft a legislative path forward to opportunity and rights for generations that existed and generations to come.

Thing is, we're not a people laid low anymore. That's my father's explanation for why the African-American people collectively put up with a nation that treated them worse than dogs, altering their behavior to accommodate the vindictive and repressive whites in charge, keep from stirring things up and making trouble for themselves.

I talk about the potential risk of all Americans losing their freedoms because it's a surety that if you grow accustomed to repression and bondage, as Abe Lincoln said, you prepare your own limbs to wear them.

"Accustomed to trample others' rights," he said, " and you've lost the genius of your own independence & become fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you."

I'll say this. I'll ultimately be here for y'all, so far as you show up for me. I've lost any mojo I might have had in my younger days for busting up against things that hurt me, and I've long made it a point to avoid things that might harm me or my family.

If you have the privilege and the means, now's the time to step forward and defend your neighbors like that neighborhood in Minneapolis which broke out their whistles to warn the vulnerable among them when they saw ICE forces enter their community.

I have to admit, I've lost a step. Please don't just ignore this. Feeling a bit low today.

[brer cat]

1. K&R Excellent post, bigtree.

[PunkinPi]

2. K&R

[bigtree]

3. .

[MineralMan]

4. There is a stereotype of people from Somalia.

It is not accurate, but that stereotype exists. As far as stupid people go, that is all they need to violate people's rights. "You look like...You resemble the description of...We got a call about a suspicious looking person..."

Like that. If they want to detain or arrest someone, there's always a way.