St. Cloud gets the New York Times treatment... for its anti-Somali racism

[captain queeg]

4. I was at a conference in Minnesota a couple years ago

Apparently they have a real high number of Somali immigrants. As I’ve noticed all over many immigrants end up driving cab and before I figured out Lyft/Uber used cabs fairly often. I hooked up with one cabbie from Somalia who was willing to schedule my rides a day in advance (I was staying a long way from the convention center because I booked so late) and we talked a lot. I’ve had very similar conversations with other cab drivers in other cities.

I’d have thought most immigrants came here to “the land of opportunity” to improve their standard of living and that’s certainly an element. But the number one reason I’ve heard again and again is just that they want a safe place to raise their family. People in America have no concept of this; life isn’t perfect and there can be occasional danger but few of us are regularly in fear for our lives.