Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/author/nekessa/page/4/)
Julia Nekessa Opoti is the producer and host of Reflections of New Minnesotans on AM950 where she interviews immigrants from all over the world who have made Minnesota their home, temporary or permanent.As a writer, Nekessa has reported extensively on Somali, Liberian and other immigrant issues in the Twin Cities for the Twin Cities Daily Planet. She served as editor of Mshale, an immigrant African newspaper.Nekessa is the co-founder and publisher of the Kenya Imagine, an opinion and analysis portal that is on hiatus.For questions, tips and story ideas send her an email at nekessa@tcdailyplanet.net.
For this show, we discussed the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernisation Bill of 2013. My guests in the studio were two Minnesota attorneys Christine Nsajja, Pascal Wokocha, and Ibe Kaba, a Minneapolis community organiser. (scroll to the bottom for audio).
Last week, photos of two St. Paul police officers in a hijab costume emerged and left many in the community concerned about the culture of racism that allows officers of the law to appear on social media in such racist cultural costumes. One of the officers appeared in blackface makeup — a practice that has racist historical roots in the entertainment industry in the 1900s and has been an expression of racism since its advent.
Ahmed Ismail Yusuf is the author of Somalis in Minnesota, recently published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press. Here he discusses how the Somali community came to reside in Minnesota. [Audio below]
Wynfred Russell is the executive director of ACER (African Career, Education and Resource, Inc.). In this interview, he talks about the intricacies of “Temporary Protected Status” and the political implications for the Liberian community in Minnesota and across the U.S. [Audio below]
In this bilingual episode of Reflections of New Minnesotans, organizers with CTUL (Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha/Center for Workers United in Struggle) discuss their campaign for workers’ rights for cleaners at retail outlets across the Twin Cities metro area. Brian Payne and Gerania Mata talk about the conditions that retail cleaners work in, and the growth of their “Campaign for Justice in Retail Cleaning.” [Audio below] Continue Reading
Elections are days away; and a lot is at stake. The two constitutional amendments on the ballot this November are clear in their intent to disenfranchise and discriminate against segments of our population. Shades of Yellow (SOY) is a St. Paul-based GLBTQ advocacy organization that has been campaigning for the past year to defeat the marriage amendment. In this show, Bruce Thao and Nhia Vang talk about SOY’s decision to take on marriage equality as a platform to advocate for other issues like poverty and family acceptance, affecting the Hmong and Southeast Asian GLBTQ community. [Audio below]
A conversation with international development specialist Amel Gorani, Director of Community Relations for the MN Department of Human Services, Antonia Apolinário-Wilcoxon, and Assistant Executive D
Proponents of voter identification laws argue that we need state-issued identification cards to prevent voter fraud. But, there is no evidence to suggest this. In fact, in Minnesota, no one has ever been convicted of voter impersonation. It is increasingly clear that Republicans are using voter repression laws as a political strategy to control who holds office with an agenda to pass conservative legislation across the board.What these laws will do is limit voter participation.Indeed, there have been cases of felons voting, however, these would not be prevented by requiring photo identification of voters. What do these laws mean for Minnesota’s high voter turner outs? Continue Reading
Julia welcomes Jamal Abdulahi, Associate Chair of the Somali-American Caucus. They talk about engaging new Americans in politics. [Audio below]
Fartun Weli is a founder of The Isuroon Project. In this interview, she discusses her work helping women in the local Somali community address infertility issues in a healthy, educated and culturally sensitive way. [Audio below] Continue Reading