More Ohio Articles

Communities In Schools of Columbus

Barnaamijka Dhillinta ee Xilliga Xagaaga

Qaado Lacagtaada

How Can We Stop the Violence?

By DOUG RUTLEDGE

Most mainstream Americans would like to believe that when they invite Somali people to their shores, they are providing a safe sanctuary to people fleeing the violence of their homeland.

Unfortunately, this is not always the case. I teach ESL (English as a Second Language) at ARECS (African Refugee Cultural and Educational Services) on the west side of Columbus. Recently, a student complained to me that she had been beaten by one African American man and three white women. These criminals hit her back with a baseball bat and kicked her in the stomach. My student was eight months pregnant at the time.

I haven’t mentioned my student’s name, because she is understandably afraid that if she is seen as drawing attention to the people who hurt her, they will hurt her again. The same fear showed itself in the prosecutor’s office last week.
We spent several hours in the city prosecutor’s office, but my student refused to press charges against the criminals who beat her. Instead, she asked the city to warn the culprits that if they harmed her again, they would face dire consequences.

To this, the representative of the prosecutor responded that the city did not issue warnings in assault cases. In minor robbery cases or for other misdemeanors, they are happy to issue warnings or try to mediate. But assault is a serious crime. It is a felony, and once someone is hit, the city wants to arrest the criminals. They don’t want these people left on the streets, where they can hurt someone else.

In spite of the fact that this young woman must live in fear every day that her neighbors will beat her again, perhaps killing her unborn baby, she is unable to press charges against the people who hurt her, because she is even more afraid that their friends will come after her, if the criminals are arrested.

I have spoken to city officials and they tell me that this kind of violence against Somali people is common in Section-Eight housing in Columbus and that everyone is afraid to press charges, so nothing is done about the hostility. This is both sad and ironic. The police arrive on a crime scene without a translator, so they are seldom able to interview the Somali victims of crime. Then when Somali people do go to the prosecutor’s office they are afraid to press charges, so in any official fashion, the city never learns that Somali people are being hurt. The false rumors that Somali people are doing harm to the citizens of Columbus fly everywhere, but it seems impossible to actually inform city officials when Somali people are being hurt by Americans.

No one can blame innocent people like my student for being afraid. When she was resettled to the United States, she was put into low-income housing, which is itself a symptom of the disease of unresolved racial tension that is endemic in American cities.  Americans know full well that impoverished African and Caucasian Americans often resent recent immigrants, because they believe that the system which has cheated them is supporting a new group of people, who will take jobs they would like, and will be given benefits they deserve.

There is in this mythology at best a half truth. For while it is true that centuries of racial tension has cheated African Americans out of a heritage and is still all too capable of cheating them out of a chance, it is certainly not true that Somali people are given any special opportunities.  As we all know, Somali people are smart, enterprising people, who work hard to build better lives and improve the neighborhoods in which they live. Somali folks earn everything they have, and they pay much more in taxes than they could ever take in benefits.

Nevertheless, two questions arise from my story. The first is why are Somali people resettled into neighborhoods already troubled by racial strife? The second question is what can Somali people do about it? How can they ask that city officials do some ground work, so that resettlement agencies and agents of Columbus and Franklin County are actively promoting understanding, rather than letting prejudice run rampant, prejudice that often results in violence?

The answer to the first question is that Americans simply do not understand what is going on. They want to believe that Somali people are untroubled by violence here, so that is what they will continue to believe until someone tells them otherwise.

The answer to the second question is that Somali people have to press charges when they are hurt. Until Columbus becomes aware that Somali people are suffering this unnecessary brutality that stems from an endemic American problem, then nothing will be done about it. Unfortunately, one way of doing something about it is to press charges. If police were called and charges filed every time a Somali person was assaulted, then the City of Columbus would soon establish a policy that would reduce the violence.

There are plenty of apartment complexes and neighborhoods with a majority of Somali people as tenants. The city could place victims of violence in these areas where they would be safe. But of course they cost more. Once Somali people learn English and get a job, they move to better areas, where their children can enjoy good school systems and where they don’t have to worry about being harassed. If city officials and resettlement agencies were taking a planned approach to the problems of violence, perhaps they could find a way to place people in apartment complexes where they would be safe.

In addition to filing charges, Somali people can do one more thing. They can find ways to educate their neighbors. African Americans and mainstream Americans need to be taught about Somali culture, about Somali values and about the problems, such as the violence that Somali people often face in America. Again, officials in the City of Columbus could be encouraged to facilitate events where people could share their culture and make new friends. Making friends in such environments will help people be safer. Of course, making friends for recent refugees is a difficult task, because folks have yet to learn the language. However, if the City were planning events that encouraged cultural understanding then introductions and even friendships might be possible.

We have to find more and more ways to make people understand the issues, because when folks understand, they help each other. It is when they don’t understand that they get afraid, and then, unfortunately, they sometimes hit each other.