I Against I

All the education in the world won’t change the minds and behaviors of people who don’t want to get along, says Fabian. “They say they don’t like the idea of unity. They just want to stay apart because they’re too proud. They don’t want to share their culture with someone else. I like to know everything about a person. I don’t want to just believe in stereotypes and not understand anything.” But criticism goes both ways, Fabian continues. “Everyone has to stop blaming each other. Somalis say it’s not their fault because black people are calling them name
s, and black people say it’s not their fault either because the Somalis are saying things about them. It just goes back and forth.”

For example, Somali students often see their African-American peers from low-income households as coming from families that don’t work hard enough to get what they want. “They’re sometimes jealous of us,” says Fartun. “Our parents work hard to get a better life and see us get ahead. We have gone through so much. Our parents work day and night. They would starve to see us have a good life. This is a free country. Everyone can work.” In addition to providing for their families here in the United States, many Somalis also send money back home to family members, some of whom still live in camps. On the other hand, African-Americans are suspicious of the Somali attitude. Their eagerness to work often leads to grumbling that Somalis are “taking all the jobs.”

“It does seem like that sometimes,” says Tim, who has often heard Somali students say that African-Americans are “lazy” and don’t try hard enough to succeed. “It’s hard to understand how they can come here from a poor country and do better than African-Americans who have lived here all their lives.” It goes back to cultural understanding, says Fabian. “They can never really know what black people have been through here. They come to this country and they strive to do well and that’s good. But some people see it like black people have just run mile after mile, and here Somalis come and jump in and win right before the finish line.”

Immigrants don’t know it, but black Americans have already done the kinds of things they’re doing now and more, El-Kati says. “Nobody has ever worked harder than black Americans when they got to this country. In a lot of ways we were pretty much like Somalis until World War II. But people wear out after so long. You can only believe that if you work hard and do what your father did and his father did and you’ll get ahead for so long before you don’t believe it anymore. A lot of black Americans are just worn out.”

New arrivals get cut slack that’s not available to Americans and they don’t even know they’re getting it, says El-Kati. “There’s a belief in this country that immigrants are harder workers than we are. It’s not unusual for immigrants to come here and do better than Americans. But I ask you, if the U.S. were truly concerned about the welfare of black people, why did it take so long for black Americans to gain their civil rights? African immigrants are here today because the civil rights movement led to the passage of the 1965 Immigration Act. Only then were large numbers of African immigrants able to come here.”

The trouble starts as these new groups assimilate, often finding themselves pitted against this country’s poorest citizens in a struggle for leftovers. But past generations of European immigrants had one thing that saved them. Eventually they came to be seen as white. “If we continue to see race as we see it now, it’s possible that new African immigrants will someday be seen as black people,” El-Kati says. “What will that mean for them in the future? Will they then be treated just like black Americans?”

“A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
—Margaret Mead

It’s been six months since the stabbing and a few Unity members are busy putting up orange flyers congratulating students on being violence-free for half a year. A few more group members are gathered in Karen Hart’s cluttered office making posters for the fight prevention campaign. Hart sketches a sun on the back of a piece of paper as three Somali girls look over her shoulder offering suggestions. “No, no we can’t change it all now. We have to get this up in the display case,” Hart says. The girls agree, and gather up the markers and paper they’ll need.

On May 17 Roosevelt will hold its first intercultural festival. By coincidence, May 17 is also Norwegian Independence Day. Mary Lathrop, Roosevelt’s fine arts coordinator, is struck by the irony. “Years ago that’s what we would have been celebrating here. We’ll be having performances and food from a variety of cultures: Hmong, Hispanic, Somali, Irish. It’s a way for us to get to know each other better. It’s a challenging thing. Our kids have to be more open-minded than a lot of people do if we’re going to have peace. But students don’t want to come to school if there isn’t peace. Some of them come from tremendously difficult backgrounds and this is a safe place for them. They like to be here.”

Before retiring to her current part-time position, Lathrop taught English at Roosevelt from 1982 to 1997. But her career in education began in Minneapolis in 1964 when she took her first teaching job. The changes she’s seen could fill a book. “In the old days, when all of my students celebrated Christmas, I would assign an essay about what people did on Christmas Eve. People would say things like, ‘What? You open all your Christmas presents on Christmas Eve?!’ Or, ‘Your family’s stuffing has clams in it?! We don’t do that!’ Now the differences are so much greater, it’s a whole entire mindset. There are so many things that we believe are a certain way. But not everybody has those sets of beliefs. Kids learn that here on a daily basis. It doesn’t take world travel for these kids to learn about the world.”