‘We Are Not at War Here’

In January 2010, two Somali men and one Oromo man [2] were killed in a market in Minneapolis’ Seward neighborhood. Their shooters were two Somali-born teenagers, trying to commit an unsuccessful robbery at the corner store.

The news hit my school hard. Somali women cried, both for the victims and for the young perpetrators who had so clearly gone astray. An Oromo man pulled me aside and said, “I do not feel safe in this school. Some Somali guy shoots an Oromo guy, and I have to sit here? No.”  

I work with adult refugees with limited literacy. They fled war in their countries, sat in refugee camps for years and waited for permission to come to the United States. Most struggle with trauma, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. 

In Minnesota, we have a very large population of East African refugees. My school reflects that. Our students are Somali, Oromo, Ethiopian, Eritrean and Anwok. These people have a long history of strife, and my students sometimes clash over their historical and religious differences.

In my classroom, students may find themselves seated next to people from the same groups they were fighting in their home country.

To calm my students and help them focus, we talk a lot about culture. We frequently discuss how people from different cultures do not have to fight each other to feel proud and secure.

One Eritrean woman told her story about fleeing from the Ethiopian army in 2000:  “I ran from the army. I went to Djibouti to be safe. But in Djibouti I met a wonderful Ethiopian man and I married him. I thought, why did I run so far to be the wife of an Ethiopian? But what can I say? Love is blind. Now my children have four nationalities—Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti and United States.”

This story led to a lot of discussion about intermarriage and multicultural children.

We also find that it helps to do a lot of group projects in class, both to build community and to practice the “soft skills” that the students need in the workplace. Most of the time, the students enjoy working together. Sometimes though, one of them protests.

“Why do I have to work with him?” a Somali student asked about an Ethiopian student. “I don’t like Ethiopians.”

I pulled the student aside to give her a reminder. “In the United States, you can’t refuse to work with someone because of the country they are from.  Your manager can fire you for that here. You must at all times be respectful to the people around you.” She frowned. But later she found herself enjoying her group.

When clashes arise, I remind them that it is now 2011 and they are in Minnesota. Things are different for them now. “In our countries, we had war—we were fighting,” one student said. “But we are not at war here. We came here to be safe.” The other students replied, “Yes!,” and nodded emphatically.

In that respect, the students are united. 

Anfinson is an ELL civics teacher in Minnesota.