Somali Fraud in Minnesota: Prosecute Bad Actors but Don't Demonize Entire Community

 The Wall Street Journal published on 4 December 2025 an article titled "A Sprawling Fraud Scandal Puts Minnesota's Somali Community in the Spotlight" by Scott Calvert and Jeanne Whalen.  

About 80,000 people of Somali descent live in Minnesota. About 60 persons have been convicted of massive fraud from child nutrition, housing, and autism service programs funded by taxpayers.  President Trump has used the situation to refer to the Somali community in Minnesota as "garbage" and urged them to return to Somalia.

Comment:  This episode is clearly a major blot on the reputation of the Somali community in Minnesota.  But the answer is to prosecute to the full extent of the law all of those persons who are guilty and not to vilify the entire Somali community.  

Representative Ilhan Omar Responds to President Trump

 The New York Times published on 4 December 2025 an opinion piece titled "Ilhan Omar: Trump Knows He's Failing.  Cue the Bigotry."

Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democrat from Minneapolis, responded to President Trump's vilification of her personally and the Minnesota Somali community generally.  She described Trump's remarks as "hate speech" and contributing to xenophobia.  

Ethnic Politics US Style: Somali Americans the Current Focus

 Reuters published on 4 December 2025 an article titled "Trump 'Garbage' Rhetoric about Somalis Draws Cheers from Administration, Silence from Republicans and Alarm from Critics" by Bianca Flowers, James Oliphant, David Hood-Nuno, and Joseph Ax.  

About 76,000 people of Somali descent live in Minnesota.  More than half of them were born in the United States.  President Trump and members of his administration have begun describing the Somali community in derogatory language.

Comment:  Any resident of the United States, Somali or otherwise, should be prosecuted for proven criminal acts.  But debasing an entire ethnic community for the actions of a few bad actors is not the America that I know and love. 

Deporting Somalis from Minnesota Encounters Reality

 The New York Times published on 3 December 2025 an article titled "Obstacles to Trump's Push to Deport Minnesota Somalis: Reality and the Cold" by Ernesto Londono and Talya Minsberg.

President Trump called Somalis in Minnesota "garbage" and vowed to deport them.  But there is a problem.  The vast majority of Somalis have legal status in the United States and very few are legally candidates for deportation.  Trump has, however, created an atmosphere of xenophobia in the Twin Cities area.

The Impact of COVID-19 on China-South Africa Relations

 World Affairs in its fall 2022 edition published an article titled "COVID-19 and South Africa-China Asymmetric Relations" by Adeoye O. Akinola and Oluwaseun Tella, both at the University of Johannesburg.

The article explores South Africa-China relations in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The authors argue that Beijing's response to COVID-19 raises more questions than it answers.  The outbreak of the virus in China, its response, and emerging cases of racism and xenophobia against Africans in China also raise concerns about the future of South Africa-China relations.

Anti-African Sentiment in China

Asia Dialogue posted on 30 August 2019 a commentary titled "As the Sino-African Relationship Flourishes, Increasing Anti-African Sentiment in China is Alarming" by Kwizela Aristide Basebya, Communication University of China in Beijing.

The author argues that as more Africans migrate to China, there is rising social and economic tension with Chinese. Among the problems is a sharp increase in racist and hate comments against Africans by Chinese internet users.

Chinese Migrants Leave South Africa

Quartz Africa published on 30 April 2017 a story titled "Chinese Migrants Have Changed the Face of South Africa. Now They're Leaving" by Lily Kuo.

South Africa hosts an estimated 350,000 to 500,000 persons of Chinese origin. Some of the families go back several generations while most of them are recent arrivals. The author suggests that today more Chinese traders and entrepreneurs are leaving South Africa than are arriving. The reasons are a bad South African economy, rising xenophobia, crime, and competition from new malls as well as African traders who have forged their own connections in China.

Africans in China Returning to Africa

John Campbell's blog at the Council on Foreign Relations published on 26 July 2016 a piece titled "Africans in China: The Pivot Back" by Nathan Birhanu and Bochen Han, both interns at the Council on Foreign Relations. The authors suggest there are four reasons why there has been an upsurge in returns to Africa by Africans residing in China, especially Guangzhou.