Adan Abdi, an immigrant from Somalia, speaks at a rally for the Somali Bantu community after President Donald Trump referred to them as “garbage.”
Reminder Publishing photo by Sarah Heinonen
SPRINGFIELD — “No more. We will not stand for injustices.” Those were the words of state Sen. Adam Gomez on Dec. 9 as he, his fellow legislators, educators, activists and community members gathered to stand in solidarity with the Somali Bantu community after President Donald Trump described them as “garbage.”
Trump’s comments came during a cabinet meeting on Dec. 2 in which he described Minnesota U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Somali American, as “garbage” and said, “we’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country.” He further disparaged Somalis, saying, “They complain, and from where they came from, they got nothing … When they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but bitch, we don’t want them in our country.”
Somali Bantu are an ethnic minority in Somalia, descended from enslaved people from southern Africa. Many Somali Bantu fled the country in the 1990s to escape the Somali Civil War and campaigns of ethnic cleansing. In 1999, the United States designated Somali Bantu people as “persecuted.”
While Springfield is home to a small population of Somali Bantu, the community came out to the rally to support them. “You are valued and you belong here,” said Rev. David Lewis, president of the Pioneer Valley Project board of directors. “We surround you with our prayers. We surround you with our promise to stand with you wherever dignity is threatened.”
Adan Abdi, a Somali Bantu person who immigrated to the United States in 2004, said he never thought he would need to tell his four children, who are American citizens, “to watch your back” just because their parents are refugees from Africa. He said Somali people are hardworking and contribute to their communities as doctors, teachers, homeowners and business owners.
Referring to Trump’s comments, Abdi said, “I want him to know these words are very dangerous. People hear and listen.” He said he now worries about whether his children will be safe.
“The reason he is targeting Minnesota is because they are in all levels of government. That really bothers him.” Abdi said, referring to that state’s relatively large Somali population and Omar’s position in Congress. “When he sees minorities doing well, he feels threatened,” he said, adding that Trump has previously singled out Haitians and people from Latin American countries.
Gomez spoke about actions by the federal government to stop people from 19 countries — Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, Cuba, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Myanmar, the Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela and Yemen — from finishing the naturalization process and becoming citizens. “It is wrong, it’s hateful. And what is evident is that it only seems they are targeting immigrants of color, specifically from Africa and also Central America, and they are part of the lifeblood of the commonwealth of Massachusetts.”
Addressing Abdi, Gomez said, “My friend, Adan, I stand with you in solidarity, with your family, with your community, and I will continue to fight for what’s right and stand next to your community, as we have always been neighbors.”
State Rep. Carlos Gonzalez said Somali people are “proud, hardworking individuals who came here as refugees, searching for a better way of life. These are parents, who have children and fear for their safety back home. Leaving their homeland in pursuit of the American dream. To label them as ‘garbage’ is not only dehumanizing, but also an affront to the very essence of our nation’s value.”
Gonzalez said such language and actions are reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan and Nazis in the first half of the 20th century. “We fought them then, and we will fight them now,” he said. “Is the Polish garbage? Is the Irish garbage? Is the French garbage? Is the Italian garbage? Because each group here came looking for the American dream. The Somali people have been part of the economic dream and success of America no different than any of those communities who have come before them,” he said.
State Sen. Jake Oliviera described Trump’s words as “humiliating” and “disgusting.” People in the crowd nodded as he said, “The patchwork of cultures that make up this nation not only benefit our future, but they also make us better as individuals.”
In a speech, Sister Melinda Pellerin, a member of the Pioneer Valley Project board of directors, drew a line from the biblical story of the infant Jesus’s escape from King Herod to the current political climate in the United States. “Somewhere I read about a child born into danger, fleeing violence with his parents, seeking refuge in Egypt. A family, like so many of our neighbors today, seeking safety and asylum,” Pellerin said. “Somewhere I read that some of our brothers and sisters are being referred to as garbage, threatened, being rounded up, just as our brown brothers and sisters have been.” She then quoted Emma Lazarus’s famous words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free. Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tossed, to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
