I want to make a few general comments about this matter of fraud against Minnesota welfare programs, which has generally been perpetrated by Somalis. I am very cognizant of the human tendency to categorize people by various innate characteristics–gender, age, skin color, ethnic background, etc. From an evolutionary perspective this tendency comes from the need to quickly identify a person as friend or threat–part of my tribe or not my tribe. As society quickly evolved beyond the tribal stage, our genes are far slower to respond, and we still tend to engage in that kind of categorization. And as I am very cognizant of that, I try hard to treat people as individuals. But there often are accurate descriptions applying to most members of a group. Those descriptions may themselves change over time.
Multiple things that appear to be conflicting can be true even at the group level, much less with any individual in the group. I fully denounce referring to any group of people, using one of those innate characteristics as the basis for the grouping, as “garbage”, or using similar derogatory terms. Individuals within the group are a different matter and groups formed by people on the basis of politics, religion or other human constructs are a different matter as well. Some people and some of those groups, Hamas for example or Putin, are just evil and despicable.
My experience with Somalis in Minnesota is that they are generally very hard working, I meet them all the time and talk with them. They have strong families and strong communities. There is much that is admirable. They do not tend to make extensive efforts at assimilation, but that is true of many new immigrant groups. Somalis also come from a failed country, where corruption and fraud was endemic and just accepted as the way things are done. They brought that culture here. Even those Somalis who don’t participate or benefit, tacitly approve of this behavior, and I am not aware of a single instance of a Somali raising the alarm, going either to the authorities or the media to raise awareness. And there can be no question that very large numbers of Somalis were aware of the frauds.
Somalis in Minnesota have a very high level of dependence on government aid programs. I would be surprised if there are not also high levels of routine fraud against those programs, misrepresenting eligibility, for example. And to the extent Somalis end up working for and administering these programs, I would suspect they facilitate fraud by other Somalis. I would also be surprised if there isn’t a high level of non-compliance with income tax requirements. I strongly, strongly suspect that Somalis, led by Ilhan Omar, engage in substantial vote fraud, which plays a role in keeping Dems in power here.
So multiple things can be true. Somalis can have many admirable characteristics, individually and as a group. But they can also be acknowledged to be coming from a region rife with corruption and fraud, and to bring that mentality with them. Trying to cover up the flaws, which is all the Incompetent Blowhard and the Star Tribune do, is not helpful. Better to have awareness and educational programs that recognize the tendency to engage in and accept fraud and to make it clear that this is unacceptable in the United States, although officials like Little Timmy Walz and racist Keith Ellison find it perfectly acceptable as long as it benefits them politically. And it shouldn’t require the federal government to actually investigate and prosecute the frauds, the state should have caught them at the start.
So let’s don’t demonize Somalis, but let us also be honest in recognizing what needs to be improved in regard to the behavior of that community.
