Finest Kind

Finest Kind

Originally shared by Alvin Stearns

At the turn of the 21st century the USA made a priority of allowing the immigration and settlement of Bantu Somalians in America.

Since then, hundreds of Bantu Somalians find themselves trying to figure out how to live in this cold and stony land, and 1.3 million native Mainers try to understand why Bantu Somalians look, sound and sometimes act so odd, ayuh.  The transition has not been easy and without its issues and challenges.  Maine is overwhelmingly Euro-American, Christian and English-speaking.  The Bantu Somalians (many of whose ancestors were forced immigrants to Somalia) are determinedly non-Euro-American, Muslim, and arrived here knowing little or no English.  It's working, this social experiment.  Not always elegantly, often with misunderstanding on both sides.  But, it's working.

Now, what's this about the USA not taking in displaced people, aka refugees?

Yes, our current crop of political hopefuls are making hay out of appealing to latent American racism and fear of "those people."  We'll make many mistakes, say stupid things, and create a popular image that we are puffed up, entitled morons.  But, we tend toward doing the right things, given a chance.

Give us a chance.  We'll wake up from this election cycle nonsense.  Eventually.  

It's never easy or without deep concern to invite "the other" into your homeland.  But, since the Bantu Somalians arrived, Mainers have not experienced the wrath of Allah's faithful, the kids are not being indoctrinated into belief in an alien god, and everybody tends to keep paying their taxes and wishing our governor would get a clue.

Plus, we've learned about Ramadan and can ask "How are you?" in a funny new way.  Iska waran?

//
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/08/16/somali-refugees-find-farming-oasis-maine/Q8LwE2N7eKRD1ytgmtlU2I/story.html

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