by Melissa Marolf | Sep 18, 2017 | Action Steps, Central MN Stories, Community, Muslim, Religion
My body was extremely angry at me last Thursday. In the morning, as I talked to folks in the community about the meeting I was to attend that night, I began to feel like I was going to throw up. As I arrived on the scene, and pulled up to the person at the end of the...
by Natalie Copeland | Aug 23, 2017 | Black, Central MN Stories, Education, Muslim, Race, Refugee, Somali
This past weekend, I attended a presentation put on by Cornerstones Center entitled Equity and Access in Education. Through this event, Cornerstones staff and speakers hoped to “initiate conversations about educational equity and barriers to access among immigrants...
by Dawn Holler | Aug 16, 2017 | Action Steps, Central MN Stories, Community, Immigration, Muslim, Race, Refugee
I am a white woman living in a very culturally diverse neighborhood in Waite Park. Some people make very disparaging remarks about my neighborhood. It’s called a ghetto, the refugee camp, and a gang-infested danger zone. It makes me sad. This is not how I describe my...
by Natalie Copeland | Aug 12, 2017 | Central MN Stories, Community, Muslim, Religion
Fear-mongering groups across the Midwest have invited another anti-Islam speaker into our churches, community halls, and civic centers. The “Truth in Love Project” tour kicked off in Bagley, MN this week and then came to the VFW in Little Falls last night,...
by Natalie Copeland | Jul 24, 2017 | Central MN Stories, Community, Immigration, Muslim, Race, Refugee, Religion, Somali
This has been a very tough couple of days for our Somali American neighbors, due to the police shooting in Minneapolis. The backlash that the Somali community as a whole has received is, to me, absolutely ridiculous, and most certainly steeped in white supremacy,...
by Melissa Marolf | Jun 27, 2017 | Immigration, Muslim, Politics, Refugee, Somali
Watching a Trump rally a couple months ago, I was particularly struck by signs being held proudly that read: “Make America Safe Again.” What was at the root of the signs that I saw? How could I better understand their perspective? I questioned myself: “Well, what does...