THE RETURN OF HISTORY. (Somali-American).
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Monday December 15, 2025 - 15:52:41 in Articles by Faisal Abdullahi
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Japanese-Americans Yesterday,
Somali-Americans Today .
Is This Still America or Are We Becoming Something Else?
By: Ali Behi
The United States once witnessed a dark chapter that still stains the pages of its history. A day when the nation strayed from the ideals it claimed to uphold—freedom, equality, and the supremacy of law over prejudice.
During World War II, thousands of Japanese-Americans—most of them U.S. citizens—were rounded up, arrested, and forced into internment camps.
Not because they committed crimes.
Not because there was evidence against them.
But because of one thing:
"They looked like the enemy.”
Their government, the nation they loved, suddenly treated them as outsiders, suspicious and dangerous simply because their ancestors came from Japan and their faces resembled Japan’s soldiers.
Families were torn apart.
Homes were lost.
Reputations were destroyed.
The government called it "national security.”
Today, Americans know the truth:
It was state-sanctioned racism.
Courts, historians, and Congress have all since acknowledged this atrocity. It has become a national lesson—one that was never supposed to be repeated.
But today, that dark image is returning in a new and disturbing form.
The doors to the old mistakes appear to be reopening.
Once again, political rhetoric is dividing citizens based on race, faith, and national origin.
Once again, loyal American citizens are being painted as "foreign threats” by their own government.
Once again, we hear:
"They come from dangerous places…”
"We must investigate them…”
"They cannot be trusted…”
Their skin color, their religion, and their culture are described as "risks” to national security.
But this time, the target is Somali-Americans.
Somali-American families—born in Minnesota, Ohio, Georgia, and across the country—who work hard, pay taxes, earn university degrees, serve in the U.S. military, raise families, and contribute to their communities are now facing a wave of rhetorical assault.
They are subjected to racist insults, discrimination, and demonization—driven by inflammatory statements coming from President Donald Trump and other national political figures.
A climate of fear is growing.
And it threatens to repeat the same tragedy inflicted on Japanese-Americans 80 years ago:
being treated as criminals because of your face.
A Comparison We Cannot Ignore .
Japanese-Americans (WWII)Somali-Americans (Today)
U.S. citizens targeted solely because of ancestry and appearanceU.S. citizens targeted because of their ancestry, skin color, and religion
Labeled a "national threat” without evidenceAccused of being "dangerous” or "untrustworthy” without evidence
Families separated, identities shatteredCommunities intimidated, reputations smeared, lives disrupted
Condemned by historyWarning signs of repeating the same injustice
America Stands at a Crossroads
The Japanese-American community left behind a painful lesson:
Ethnicity is not a crime.
The U.S. government eventually issued a national apology, paid reparations, and acknowledged its wrongdoing.
And now we must ask:
What prevents this nation from repeating its mistakes if we fail to act?
If Somali-Americans are portrayed as suspicious, un-American, or inherently dangerous, then the country is walking directly toward a historical darkness it once promised never to revisit.
A Duty for the Courts, Congress, and the American People
This moment demands moral, legal, and constitutional responsibility:
To stop the hateful and inflammatory rhetoric coming from political leaders
To protect Somali-American citizens, whose rights are guaranteed by the Constitution
To affirm that ethnicity, skin color, or religion can never be grounds for suspicion
To ensure courts uphold the Constitution—the oath they swore
To compel Congress to act before harm deepens and history repeats itself
Conclusion: History Must Not Be Forgotten—It Must Be Learned From
Japanese-Americans still live with the legacy of what their government did to them when they needed protection the most.
Their experience left a solemn warning:
"When fear, not law, decides who is a citizen, freedom dies.”
Today, Somali-Americans stand in a position frighteningly similar to that of Japanese-Americans decades ago.
And so the question remains:
Will America be the nation that learned from its past—
or the nation that forgot its lessons?
If Somali-Americans can be targeted for their skin color and heritage…
who will be next?
BY: Ali Behi
AFEEF:
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