Lol. So many Somalis act like black Americans and will scream that they are not black. Everywhere Somalis migrated to in the west, there are Somali gangs… even in Scandinavia where there aren’t many black people.
I didn’t say anything about teaching young kids that they are black first. I didn’t say anything about pan africanism either. That doesn’t even exist in real life. Pan africanism is dead and will never be a real, successful movement.
I said dumb Somalis on the internet brought unwanted and negative attention to our ethnicity when they could’ve just been quiet like Eritreans, Sudanis and Ethiopians. Not everything about our identity needs to be screamed down everyone’s throats. Eritreans view themselves differently to black people but they’re not annoying and loud about it. We didn’t have to loudly isolate ourselves because look at what it has caused.
Somalis online were not smart enough to calmly explain how different Africans are to each other. Instead, they distanced themselves from blackness and trolled everyone and used words like j*reer as a slur. These other people then viewed it as Somalis being self hating or having a superiority complex. All of this just could’ve been completely avoided if Somalis were just quiet and not as visible. Or if the distancing wasn’t done so poorly. If anything this distancing has created more self haters since being Somali is now being associated with self inflicted negative stereotypes because of dumb somali boys online.
Regardless, it’s too late now. We are a fragmented community with no outside support currently being targeted by racist cadaans
Gangs are not a "Black cultural" thing. I don't know why y'all keep thinking this way. And Scandinavia is not a monolith , there are no organized Somali gangs in, say, Norway or Finland. People love to project what happens in Sweden onto the whole region, when in reality it's the result of failed integration policies and the societal alienation immigrants experience there.
People are shaped by the environments they settle into. Take Minnesota, for example , the gangs that formed in the early 2000s weren’t about copying "madow culture." They formed in response to real threats from white supremacist gangs like the Aryan Cowboy Brotherhood, All-American Boys, and Boogaloo Boys, who were targeting Somali youth while law enforcement looked the other way.
Interestingly enough it has more to do with White Americans gangs than Black American gang culture.
The gangs were created much in response to white gangs that were targeting Somalis and they turned to them to defend themselves from it.
But this was in the early 2000s, gang activity of all types have either stopped or been on a decline since. Primarily out of Somalis introduction into local law enforcement which has provided Somali security for their community through legitimate means.
Similar dynamics happened in parts of the UK. Somalis have often been settled in neighborhoods that were hostile to them from the beginning
I also don’t agree with this idea that Somalis are isolated. In fact, we’re one of the most transnational and well-connected diasporas out there.
And honestly, it wouldn’t matter how Somalis behaved online , Africans and other Black groups have always seen Somalis as “non-Black others.” The only reason Somali trolls gain traction is because their actions confirm the deeply held prejudices that already existed. Whether it’s about our appearance (being accused of being mixed), our Islamic identity (which brings anti-Arab or Islamophobic resentment), or simply our distinctiveness , we’ve always had our Blackness questioned, long before the “j-word” was even a thing online.
Another part of this is how we operate like other “middleman minority” groups (look up the term). Just like the Jews, Chinese, and others, Somalis have maintained a strong sense of ethnic and cultural cohesion and that’s something people often find threatening. Especially in contrast to some communities that have historically sought acceptance from white power structures or come in with feelings of inferiority. Somalis don’t operate from that angle and that makes others uncomfortable.
So when Somalis emphasize being Somali and not just “Black” it’s seen as self-hate. But that actually reveals more about how others are willing to water down, erase, or abandon where they come from in order to fit in. That’s not a Somali problem.
In fact, rather than being fragmented, it shows the opposite. Somalis are some of the most socially cohesive and self-supporting people out there. We’ve had to be. We've faced race-based and ethnic-based targeting from the minute we arrived in the West.
This isn’t some new “troll trend” this is survival, and we’ve always found a way to rise above the hate.
Respectability politics won’t save us. Trying to fit in or earn approval by being “quiet,” polite, or overly polished doesn’t change anything. Racism doesn’t go away because you're nice. Plenty of communities have tried that, and they still face the same discrimination. Real power comes from building your own structures, your own networks, your own institutions , not from begging others to see your humanity.
And my earlier point wasn’t about worrying over how we look to racists or how Africans or other Black people perceive us , many of them have their own internalized self-hate and issues. Their neighborhoods and economies are controlled by outsiders. Their anger about racism often boils down to a craving for validation from white people.
What I was really saying is that Somalis should protect their privacy and move wisely , but that’s hard to expect in a clout-chasing, social media-obsessed world.
