Support Minnesota
I don't have any pithy cultural commentary in me this month
I think it’s important to acknowledge what is going on and what I am seeing. I lived in South Minneapolis for ten years, it’s a vibrant, diverse, progressive community where supporting your neighbours is a key part of the culture, as is creative expression. I will always love it there, people I care about live there, I was proud to call it my home for many years. Minneapolis, Saint Paul and Minnesota more broadly, are under attack and occupation by the United States federal government. Last week I watched a US citizen peacefully observing ICE agents be executed in broad daylight on a public street and then watched the federal government lie about what happened and call her a terrorist. Her name was Renee Good and like me, she was a writer from Colorado who relocated to Minneapolis. The ICE officer, who at no point was under any threat or danger from Good, shot her in the head 3x and called her a “fucking bitch” afterwards. I watched Kristi Noem, secretary of Homeland Security, give a press conference behind a podium stamped with the slogan “One of Ours, All of Yours” connecting herself and the federal government to oppressive, terrorising and retribution based tactics of fascist and imperialist governments of the twentieth century, such as Nazi Germany and Russia under Stalin.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the first muslim congressman, Keith Ellison (Minnesota’s current Attorney General) came from Minneapolis’ 5th district. As did Ilhan Omar, the first Somali-American elected to congress. Minnesota voted against Trump in all three presidential elections. It is a strong hold of progressive values. Minneapolis and Minnesota are being used as examples of what will happen to other states and cities and Americans if they do not comply with Trump’s agenda. ICE agents, who are conducting door-to-door searches of homes, asking to see people’s “papers” and demanding with violence that people tell them where people of colour live in their neighbourhoods, so they can kidnap them, have been publicly supported by the federal government as having “absolute immunity” in their actions and have been encouraged to used “aggressive” tactics. Schools are closed. People are afraid to leave their homes. Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act on Minnesota, allowing him to invade Minnesota with the military.
I think we should all stop what we are doing and witness this. I don’t think there is anything more important anyone can do than stop what they are normally doing and acknowledge this and support grassroots efforts in Minnesota to keep people protected and fight back against Trump. Things are not going to go back to the way they were. That time is behind us and we have to fight to stop this tyranny however we possibly can. Whatever you can contribute matters.