This Is What America Looks Like by Ilhan Omar

Author:Ilhan Omar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

13

Politics

2012–2013

Minneapolis, Minnesota

I was nauseous and hungry, tired and cold. But time was running out, so even though I wanted to go home, put my feet up, and eat Thanksgiving leftovers, I returned to the elevator bank and pressed the button to go up.

In the two months that I had been doing get-out-the-vote work for Mohamud Noor’s bid for Minnesota state senator from the 59th district in a special election, I had been to the Riverside Plaza apartment complex more times than I could count. Some of the mostly Somali residents were surprised when a pregnant hijabi knocked on their door and wouldn’t leave until she had convinced them to vote for Noor in the Democratic primary on December 6, 2011. Or at least vote.

I hadn’t been home from Africa long and was already pregnant with Ilwad when I threw myself into the campaign that ignited me and many others seeking progressive representation to bring about economic prosperity and opportunity for all of Minneapolis’s residents.

Noor—a Somali immigrant, a former employee of the state’s Department of Human Services, and a political newcomer—was running against Kari Dziedzic, a policy aide to the county commissioner and daughter of legendary longtime Minneapolis city council member Walt Dziedzic. Carrying on a political family dynasty, Dziedzic was pushed by the Democratic establishment while Noor, running to become the first Somali in the country elected to a higher office, was of the people. At least that’s what I thought and what I was willing to work for.

Noor’s run for a seat on the state legislature was the first campaign I volunteered for after returning from North Dakota, but I had been involved in many forms of community organizing way before that.

My interest in the workings of our democracy began a few years after I arrived in the United States, when Baba asked if I would accompany him to a caucus. He had heard about the gathering in an English class he was taking at a local resource center. Understanding it to be some manner of participating in democracy, he was interested in attending and wanted me to make sure he was able to follow along with what was being said and done.

Neither of us had ever been to anything like it. Our first introduction to the event were the people hawking their candidates outside, trying to get passersby to come into the venue like carnival barkers for public policy.

I was able to translate the words for Baba, but I couldn’t make sense of the process. At first people were just sitting around, and then, without any kind of proper introduction, someone eventually started talking, only to be cut off by someone else yelling, “That’s not how you do it!” A little later, an agenda was handed out about issues to be discussed. Then people began to argue about the agenda. I don’t remember the candidates, but the room was filled with a lot of characters. It was a good place for people watching.

Even though the whole thing was messy—really messy—it was clear that everyone was eager to be there.

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