End Wokeness

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Right-wing media use mistranslation of Ilhan Omar’s speech to push for her deportation and expulsion from Congress | Media Matters for America

Right-wing media have taken a couple of blatant mistranslations of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) recent speech about the Republic of Somaliland to claim Omar is not loyal to the U.S. and should be removed from Congress and deported.

Omar said that one of the mistranslations was “completely off” and posted by “propagandists,” and the other mistranslation circulating online is satirical and was pushed by a right-wing troll account. Some right-wing figures picked it up in earnest to attack Omar, a frequent target of such smears. Right-wing media have taken a couple of blatant mistranslations of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) recent speech about the Republic of Somaliland to claim Omar is not loyal to the U.S. and should be removed from Congress and deported.

Omar said that one of the mistranslations was “completely off” and posted by “propagandists,” and the other mistranslation circulating online is satirical and was pushed by a right-wing troll account. Some right-wing figures picked it up in earnest to attack Omar, a frequent target of such smears.

• ## Two mistranslated clips have gone viral of a recent speech by Ilhan Omar, who has long been a target of right-wing media attacks

• • Omar recently gave a speech in Somali to constituents at a hotel in Minneapolis to address concerns about the Republic of Somaliland giving coastline access to Ethiopia. Somalia and Ethiopia have long-standing diplomatic tensions, and the self-proclaimed but unrecognized Republic of Somaliland’s agreement to grant land-locked Ethiopia access is controversial. Somalia claims that Somiland is part of its territory and that forming an agreement with Ethiopia is an act of aggression. BBC, [1/19/24; Star Tribune, 1/31/24]

• • According to a translation of her speech posted by a Somaliland official, Omar stated that the United States government “will only do what Somalians in the US tell them to do” and that Somali people “are Somalians first, Muslims second.” Right-wing media have also claimed that Omar stated “Somalia first,” which was not part of the original mistranslation, but may stem from a parody video made by right-wing troll account Still Boneless. Twitter/X, [1/28/24, 1/29/24]

• • Omar has said that the translation of her speech was “not only slanted but completely off.” She also wrote, “Somalis in Somalia and in the diaspora are united in that effort [of protecting Somalia] and I stand in solidarity with them. No amount of harassment and lies will ever change that.” Twitter/X, [1/28/24,]

• • The Spectator spoke to a Somalia analyst and a Somali journalist who verified that the viral clip was mistranslated and stated that the speech was distorted to push a political agenda. One of the translations, provided by Abdirashid Hashi, does not include the inflammatory statements being promoted by the right. A Somali-speaking reporter from Minnesota’s largest newspaper, the Star Tribune, also reviewed the speech and found that it matched Hashi’s translation. According to Faisal Ali, a Somali journalist, Omar did not say that she threatened to “invade Somalia’s neighbors.” The Spectator, [1/30/24; Star Tribune, 1/31/24; Twitter, 1/29/24]

• • Right-wing media have previously attacked Omar as “America-hating” and an “an active threat to the United States.” She was also ousted from the House Foreign Affairs Committee by her GOP colleagues last year after right-wing media called for her to be punished. Media Matters, [12/20/23; 10/13/23; 2/2/23]

• ## Right-wing media figures are claiming Omar is loyal to Somalia and not the U.S.

• • The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh posted that Omar spoke with “pride” for Somalia, which he asserted is a “failed state” that “contributes nothing of significance to the world besides piracy and terrorism.” Walsh questioned why Americans elect representatives who “can’t muster the same affinity for our country that Somalian refugees have for the country they fled from.” Twitter/X, [1/29/24]

• • On X, right-wing influencer End Wokeness claimed that Omar “pledged allegiance to Somalia.”The account also echoed a conspiracy theory that a proposed modification of the Minnesota state flag looks similar to the flag of Somalia. Twitter/X, [1/29/24; Media Matters, 12/20/23]

• • Neo-nazi collaborator Jack Posobiec shared a clip mistranslating Omar as saying “Somalia First, yes! Down with America.” The satirically mistranslated clip also claims that Omar shouted “ Swiftie Jihad!” and said she wants Travis Kelce brought to her in Minneapolis. Twitter/X, [1/29/24]

• • Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk posted that he would say Omar has “dual loyalty, but what’s the loyalty she has besides Somalia?”Twitter/X, [1/29/24]

• • Far-right troll Laura Loomer proclaimed that it is “shameful” that Omar is able to continue her “jihadist subversion of America.”Loomer baselessly said that Omar was a “terrorist” and a “foreign subversive jihadist in Congress.” Loomer has been banned from multiple platforms for making similar claims. Twitter/X, [1/28/24; Media Matters, 12/8/22; CNN, 8/19/20].

• • BlazeTV host Steve Deace called Omar’s district “Little Somalia” while claiming that she said she’s “here on behalf of Somali interests” in her speech. Deace also claimed that “we don’t have a melting pot anymore. … We just import worldviews now.” BlazeTV, [1/29/24]

• • The National Pulse published an article titled “WATCH: Ilhan Omar Gives Treasonous ‘Somalia First’ Speech Confessing to Working for Foreign Nation in U.S. Congress.”The article claimed that Omar “was recorded telling a Somali audience they are ‘people of the same blood, people who know they are Somalians first, Muslims second, who protect each other,’ adding she is ‘here to protect the interests of Somalia from inside the U.S. system.’” The National Pulse, [1/30/24]

• • Kirk asked on his show, “Is Ilhan Omar trained by a foreign government to do the bidding of a distant far-off land?” He also claimed that “I would say she has dual loyalty, but that would require some loyalty to America, so she has one loyalty and it's not here, it's abroad.” *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [1/31/24]

• ## Right-wing figures are using the mistranslated speech and racist rhetoric to push for Omar’s investigation, expulsion from Congress, and deportation

• • Founder of Judicial Watch Tom Fitton posted: “DOJ, IRS, etc should be investigating Ilhan Omar.” He made the comment in response to one of his tweets from 2019, in which he said, “Expel her? There's substantial evidence that Ilhan Omar DID marry her brother and committed marriage, tax, immigration, and other crimes. Judicial Watch steps up and demands action from House Ethics Committee.” Twitter/X, [1/30/24]

• • On Gettr, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon reposted the National Pulse article while commenting, “Deport Her.” Gettr, [1/30/24]

• • Walsh wrote on X, “Every Republican member of congress should be calling for Ilhan Omar to be expelled from congress and deported back to where she came from.”This post was a response to End Wokeness, which wrote, “Ilhan Omar tells a crowd of Somalians that her top priority is to put Somalia first and expand its territory.” Twitter/X, [1/29/24]

• • Daily Wire host Michael Knowles claimed on his show that Omar’s speech is the “best argument for restricting immigration that I have heard in years” and that she “should be expelled from Congress over this and probably she should be deported.” He also claimed that Omar admitted to being “only loyal to Somalia,” adding: “ And at no point does she suggest that she’s loyal to America at all. The only reason she seems to like America is in as much as she can use America to benefit Somalia.” The Daily Wire, *The Michael Knowles Show*, [1/30/24]

• • YouTuber Benny Johnson posted that Omar “should be expelled from Congress and deported back to Somalia, since she loves it so much.” He also claimed that “Ilhan Omar says she will always put ‘Somalia First’. In doing so, she broke her oath of office AND she broke her oath of American citizenship.” Twitter/X, [1/30/24]

• • Right-wing commentator Liz Wheeler posted, “Ilhan Omar says she’s Somali first, Muslim second, never says she’s American, & threatens to make the U.S. bow to Somali interests. EXPEL HER, you cowards.” She also compared Omar to expelled Rep. George Santos, stating that he “was expelled from Congress—by his own party!—because he lied on his resume.” Twitter/X, [1/29/24]

• • Right-wing radio host Mark Levin posted on X, “How much you want to bet not a single House Democrat gives a damn Omar is a treasonous fraud.” He added: “How much you want to bet the media will defend her. How much you want to bet the word racism will be thrown around to kill any scrutiny.” Twitter/X, [1/30/24]

• • End Wokeness posted, “Ilhan Omar didn't just break her oath of office. She broke her oath of American citizenship. She should be expelled and deported.”Twitter/X, [1/30/24]

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1. ### Right-wing media attack Minnesota's state flag redesign with “great replacement” theory rhetoric

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3. ### Right-wing media are pushing bigoted rhetoric toward Muslims — including Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar — after recent Hamas attacks

10/13/23

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Right-wing media attack Minnesota's state flag redesign with "great replacement" theory rhetoric | Media Matters for America

After a Minnesota commission unveiled its finalist pick for a new state flag to replace a racially offensive design, right-wing media insisted that the new design resembled one from a state in Somalia. Conservatives used the redesign to promote the racist “great replacement” conspiracy theory, claiming that Minnesota has been “conquered” by Somali immigrants. Right-wing media claimed the design’s green and white stripes, which a state commission ultimately chose to remove from the final design, resembled Somalia’s flag.

Minnesota’s new flag design incorporates the state's shape, motto, and natural resources, replacing an old “genocidal” design

• • The selected flag design incorporates Minnesota’s shape, motto, and natural resources. Minnesota Public Radio reported that the winning entry from a group of finalists includes an eight-point star in the design to reflect the state’s motto “L’etoile du Nord” (“Star of the North”), as well as an “abstract shape of Minnesota at the flag’s left edge.” The Minnesota resident who submitted the winning design also explained to MPR: “Each color was chosen to symbolize a different important aspect of Minnesota and its identity. For the stripes, white represents snow/winter, the green stripe represents our beautiful nature and the importance of agriculture and the light blue stripe represents the several significant meanings of water to our state: as the land of 10,000 lakes, the birth state of the Mississippi River and the origins of our state’s name —which came from the Dakota language— which translates to ‘a place of sky-tinted water.’” A separate report from Axios noted that “various elements, such as colors, the shape of the star and the number of stripes, could still change.” Minnesota Public Radio, [11/28/23; Axios, 12/15/23]

• • The final flag design eliminated the white and green stripes. MPR published an updated article describing the final design selected by the State Emblems Redesign Commission: “A new flag with a shape that resembles — well, itself — along with an eight-point North Star and a single, light blue block to the other side.” According to the article, “a pair of designers” recommended eliminating the stripes on the right and limiting colors to shades of blue and white, suggestions which the commission accepted. Minnesota Public Radio, [12/19/23]

• • The old Minnesota state flag has white nationalist overtones. MinnPost described Minnesota’s state seal, which is displayed on the current state flag, as including “many images, but the central theme is of a farmer tilling a field with a Native American on horseback riding in the distance.” The article added, “While the pre-statehood-designed seal and flag might be subject to interpretation, a poem written by the wife of the designer says this about the image: ‘We claim his noble heritage/And Minnesota’s land/Must pass with all its untold wealth/To the white man’s grasping hand.’” MinnPost, [6/8/23]

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• • The state lawmaker who was the prime sponsor of a bill to replace the Minnesota state flag and seal called them “a cluttered genocidal mess.” MinnPost additionally reported that the currently existing Minnesota state flag ranked close to last in a survey of state flags and “falls into the grouping that populates the bottom of most rankings.” MinnPost, [6/8/23]

• ## Right-wing media claimed that the new flag resembles a Somali flag and that Minnesota has been “conquered” by Somali immigrants

• • Conservative radio host Charlie Kirk and guest, former Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), ranted that the new Minnesota flag shows that Somali immigrants are “conquering” the state: “It is a great replacement.” Kirk and Bachmann went on a racist rant about Somalis, claiming they have “a fraud culture” and that Muslims are “conquering” Minnesota and want to turn it into ”Minnesota-stan" and an “Islamic state.” Kirk asked, “Why are we allowing ourselves to be replaced by third world Muslim foreigners?” and later said that Democrats will use immigration to “change the body politic. ... It is a great replacement by other means.” Salem Radio Group, *The Charlie Kirk Show,* [12/18/23]
  • YouTube streamer Tim Pool alleged that the new flag “looks an awful lot like the flag of Jubaland in Somalia.” Pool added: “When … they make it look like a flag of Somalia, and it’s the state with the largest Somali population, a lot of people are going to feel like you are being subverted, that your cultural values are being taken away from you by minority populations and non-American populations.” *TimCast IRL*, [12/18/23, via Twitter/X]
  • Pool posted in response to a post about the flag: “Yall are conquered.” Twitter/X, [12/17/23]

• • Antisemitic streamer Stew Peters wrote on X, “Somalia is raising its flag over Minnesota” adding that the state “has officially been conquered by double digit IQ savages.” Twitter/X, [12/18/23]

• • Right-wing influencer account End Wokeness wrote on X: “Minnesota is home to the largest Somali population in the West. Rep. Ilhan Omar (Minnesota) is from Puntland. Minnesota just unveiled their new flag. I'm sure this is just a coincidence.” Twitter/X, [12/17/23]

• • Right-wing social media personality Amuse suggested on X that “an entire US state had been conquered,” citing the new Minnesota flag design. The account posted: “What if we woke up on day and realized an entire US state had been conquered? Take a look at the new flag Minnesota is considering. It looks a lot like the Somali flag (MN has the highest percentage of Somali refugees thanks to Obama).” Twitter/X, [12/17/23]

• • PJ Media published an article declaring that “the new flag’s adoption of Somali flag colors strongly implies that this community of new Minnesotans … is in the driver’s seat.” The article lamented that “instead of expecting the new Somali arrivals in Minnesota to become American … the new flag appears to be signaling that Minnesota has become Somalia,” and “the North Star state is likely to get more and more Somali as the days and years inexorably pass.” PJ Media, [12/18/23]

• • Newsmax’s Rob Finnerty said on Wake Up America: “So the new flag, it is very similar to the flag of Somalia. And just so you know, 43,000 Somalians live in Minnesota.” Finnerty continued, “This flag is directly to appeal to the Somalian population in the state of Minnesota. And by the way, something like 60,000 Somalians across the southern border under Joe Biden's time in office.” Newsmax, *Wake Up America*, [12/19/23]

• • Newsmax host Rob Schmitt stated that the flag redesigning commission “was a big conglomerate of who can be the wokest. And they said, ‘You know what? Let's get really, really woke and turn Minnesota's flag into the Somalian flag.’” He also used the story to call Somali American Rep. Ilhan Omar an “America-hating refugee.” Newsmax, *Rob Schmitt Tonight*, [12/18/23]

• • One America News host Kara McKinney claimed on her show that Minnesota — “the conquered state” — had spent thousands of dollars to “spit on their cultural heritage and to instead seemingly raise a foreign flag above American soil.” McKinney cited a racist X post that suggested that Somali immigrants had “conquered” Minnesota, which the post described as “a state with historic Scandinavian ties … and generous welfare on offer.” McKinney also said the new design reminded her of an incident in which “a gang of migrant youth” reportedly attacked a man dressed as Santa Claus in Germany, before claiming that “large, roving migrant rape gangs preying on young women and girls, no-go zones, and rampant terror attacks” had turned “historically safe parts of Europe into dangerous hellholes.” She added, “Can’t wait to see what Middle East or African-inspired flags their historical flags get morphed into.” One America News, *Tipping Point with Kara McKinney*, [12/18/23]

• • Far-right X account Right Angle News Network on the flag design: “We are being replaced and they aren’t even trying to hide it anymore.” The account added: “We must resist guys. It’s not racist to want to exist.” Twitter/X, [12/17/23]

• • Conspiracy theory website World Net Daily suggested that “Somalis living in Minnesota … have brought their flag with them.” The article was titled “American state's new official flag looks like one from terror hotbed.” World Net Daily, [12/18/23]

• • The Western Journal wrote: “The similarities between it [the proposed flag design] and the state flag for the Somalian state of Puntland are certainly undeniable.” Western Journal, [12/17/23]

• • The Gateway Pundit published a story headlined “Revamped Minnesota State Flag Looks a Lot Like the Jubaland Somalian Flag for Some Strange Reason.” The Gateway Pundit, [12/18/23]

• • Headline from TheBlaze: “Redesign of Minnesota state flag draws controversy as some say it resembles Somalian state flag: 'Yall are conquered.'” TheBlaze, [12/18/23]

• ## Right-wing media have long record of pushing racist “great replacement” rhetoric

• • Right-wing media figures have spent years pushing the “great replacement” theory, which warns of a nefarious plot to erode the political power of white people by replacing them with nonwhite immigrants. The blood-soaked conspiracy theory has inspired a number of horrific events, including: the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017; the 2019 El Paso, Texas, shooting; the 2022 shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, and others. Media Matters, [6/30/22]

• • Some right-wing figures have echoed the “great replacement” theory in their rhetoric attacking the Somali community in Minnesota. In 2020, the now-defunct right-wing group Project Veritas falsely accused Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and the Somali community in Minnesota of engaging in a “pay-for-votes” scheme. In 2021, former Trump official Ken Cuccinelli said “the Somali experience in Minnesota is not a good one for America.” Media Matters, [10/7/20, 9/16/23]

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