by Dawn Holler | Oct 25, 2017 | Central MN Stories, Community, Muslim, Race, Refugee, Somali
Meet Bella. She doesn’t know she’s a good-will ambassador, working on bridging the gap between cultures, but, she is. She has helped open up more conversations with my neighbors than I could ever imagine. As my neighborhood began to change and I was blessed with tons...
by Natalie Copeland | Oct 16, 2017 | Action Steps, Community, Politics, Refugee
There are a handful of people in Central MN that are obsessed with making sure they don’t have “even one more” refugee neighbor. One of the main spokespeople for this group is St. Cloud City Councilman, Jeff Johnson. This, my friends, is what systematic oppression...
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 Unite Cloud | Aug 1, 2017 | Immigration, Refugee
When refugees leave their home, they move to a completely different world – one with different cultural values and traditions. They leave behind their rights – right of choice, to be exact. Their liberty is stripped from them; their education means nothing anymore....
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,...
