The Walz Are Caving in on Minnesota's Somali Community

The fact that Tim Walz, a man who could have been Vice-President of the United States, has abruptly abandoned seeking a third term as Governor of Minnesota is certainly an indication that his administration dropped the ball and did not meaningfully address alleged daycare fraud with the state's large Somali community.

Yet I suspect the breadth and depth of this fraud is not large enough to warrant the Trump Administration to freeze childcare payments to Minnesota and several other states. No doubt the Trump Administration was looking for a reason to freeze these funds, and they found it with little Nick Shirley's viral video of empty daycare centers though the claims have not been independently verified. VP Vance might think Shirley's "journalism" more worthy of a Pulitzer Prize than any of its winners. Yet let us never forget that Vance is the man who bragged about creating stories about Haitians in Ohio eating cats and dogs.

Nevertheless, this particular story has been lingering for a number of years. I suspect that it's catching fire now because the Trump Administration doesn't care much for Somalis whether they commit fraud or not with the President himself characterizing the community at large as "garbage." A story like this gives Trump and his acolytes an opportunity to pour fuel on the fire and promote hatred and contempt against Somalis. Some have gone as far as to accuse Somalis of using the fraudulently obtained money to fund terrorist groups like al-Shabaab. One of those making those accusations is Christopher Rufo who, last I checked, was peddling the "Haitians eat cats and dogs" bullshit.

When I attended Carleton University in Ottawa in the early 1990's, there was a sizable Somali community amid the civil war which had begun several years earlier. There were stories of welfare fraud and the Somali community tended to find itself singled out though it was truly no more guilty of welfare fraud than any other community. As with what is going on in Minnesota, there were undoubtedly kernels of truth, yet the community at large was being vilified. There have been large scale welfare fraud schemes by segments of the Mormon community in Utah and rightly so, but no one would entertain the idea of casting aspersions on the Mormon community at large and rightly so. Yet critical masses of society exercise no such discretion when it comes to non-white communities like Somalians.

With Walz not seeking a third term, there is speculation that longtime Minnesota Democratic Senator and former presidential aspirant Amy Klobuchar might run in his stead. The state has elected Klobuchar to the Senate five times, so it is not unreasonable to consider the possibility that Minnesota voters would elect her to statewide office as well as federal office. If Minnesotans do elect Klobuchar governor, I wonder if Klobuchar would appoint Walz to the Senate to serve out her term which would end in 2031?

Yet a story like this can linger in the ugliest way imaginable. Given the domination by Democrats in Minnesota in recent years, I could see a backlash against Klobuchar resulting in the election of an anti-Somali, anti-immigrant Republican Governor.