Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
"An Avalanche of Satirical Trolling"
That's how Faisal Ali sums up the online Somali response to Trump's racist rhetoric in this excellent piece for Africa Is a Country.
Much ado has been made about the ways in which the right uses social media to spread its hateful messaging, but the posts from the Somali community over the last week and a half have (unsurprisingly) been a whole lot funnier (and smarter). Here's the gist, from Ali's piece:
The viral video that kicked it all off was a young Somali woman on TikTok claiming that Minnesota was promised to Somalis 3,000 years ago. Since then, Somalis have been joking that they want a two-state solution, that Americans have 49 other states they could choose from, so why not give them one? That Somalis everywhere should make “Som-Aaliyah” to Minnesota. That Somalis were among the founding fathers. That Somali explorers discovered Minnesota, and so it is theirs. And that Minnesota is a made-up name and was actually called “Juba and Somalia.” There are way more examples here.
"MinneSomalia" videos have been all over my "For You Page" this week, and there's a real joyful, are-you-kidding energy to the posting that just warms the heart. (It helps that you can practically feel the blood pressure of Fox News watchers rising with every clip.) There are too many winners to embed them all here, but some of the Somali TikToks I got a kick out of this week (and didn't see linked in the above pieces) include...
And...
@annasinclair3 like ???? mn is great because of it’s diversity . #minnepolis #mn #somalis #ice
♬ original sound - aryanna🦌🌲
It's a good reminder of the power of laughter and a good goof in difficult times. And man, we really need it, because...
ICE Still Tormenting Twin Cities Somalis
On Tuesday, a 20-year-old Twin Cities man named Mubashir was attacked by a masked agent who slammed him into a door, dragged him outside into the snow, and put him into a chokehold on the ground. Mubashir is a Somali American citizen; he repeatedly stated that fact throughout the interaction while offering to show his I.D. and was nonetheless taken into federal custody.
Here's what he had to say about the ordeal:
The appalling arrest is the latest in the federal government's ongoing “Operation Metro Surge," which has included related hits like "citizen arrested and mocked by agents for her hijab" and "citizen ICE observer arrested during action in north Minneapolis."
“You can’t tackle somebody because they look Somali without knowing who they are, what their name is, and you can’t then detain them for purposes of immigration when they’re a completely legal American citizen,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said during that Wednesday press conference. We'd add that you shouldn't fucking do that even if they're not a "completely legal" American citizen, but the point stands.
The Strib's Louis Krauss reports that the the Minneapolis City Council is considering strengthening the city’s separation ordinance, with proposed changes including "requiring all city staff to be trained on city policies and procedures related to federal immigration enforcement and requiring reports when local police provide crowd control at federal enforcement operations." Over in St. Paul, the City Council passed a resolution Wednesday calling for an outside investigation into SPPD's participation in the November federal raid where officers were filmed spraying protesters with chemical irritants and firing off "less lethal" rounds.
The Heights: Part of a "Mini-Empire of Historic Theaters"?
WBEZ Chicago sat down with Music Box CEO Brody Sheldon, a "second-generation movie buff" and part of the group that recently purchased Minneapolis's Heights Theater, to talk about the Chicago-based theater's decision to expand to Minnesota (and add another screen in Lake View).
We probably don't need to tell you that movie theaters nationwide are not doing "super hot," to use an industry term, with 57,000-ish screens shutting down since the pandemic started. The Music Box is bucking that trend, and Sheldon tells WBEZ that in an era of multiplexes and Drafthouses, its historic charm is part of the draw.
“We seem to be doing something right here, and Chicago has given us feedback that whatever we’re offering, they’re happy to receive,” Sheldon says. “So we’re hoping that with the third theater, we can offer more of that, and then in Minneapolis, we can bring this there.”
He's Running
Is it good or bad news for the DFL that, just after MyPillow guy Mike Lindell formalized his run for governor Thursday, current guv Tim Walz issued a fundraising appeal describing him as the GOP frontrunner?
No, seriously, is that good or bad for dems? Do we think the election-denying, blood-coagulant-and-tooth-kit-selling fella, who may or may not have been the subject of an FBI raid at Hardee's and whose pillow stores all appear to have closed, is the GOP candidate most capable of unseating Walz in 2026?
It's probably just a fundraising layup... right? But also, hard to overstate the extent to which we live in the dumbest timeline.
