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Anti-Somali sentiment, Somalophobia or Somaliphobia, [1] refers to fear, hostility, or other negative attitudes towards Somalis or Somali culture.
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Anti-Somali sentiment, Somalophobia or Somaliphobia, [1] refers to fear, hostility, or other negative attitudes towards Somalis or Somali culture.
Anti-Somali sentiment is sometimes referred to by the uncountable sense Somalophobia , the countable agent noun of Somalophobe , or adjectivally as Somalophobic sentiment. [2] [3]
The antonym and opposite sentiment are referred to by the uncountable sense Somalophilia, the countable agent noun of Somalophile, or adjectivally as Somalophilic. [4]
The 2000s and early 2010s saw major sporadic outbreaks of violence against Somali shopkeepers in South Africa. This violence has been attributed to jealousy over the large presence of Somali businesses. [5] However, some writers have attributed such hostility to a wider xenophobia, since other non-South Africa Africans were targeted as well. [3]
Somali Americans have experienced Anti-Somali sentiment and it is sometimes expressed in the context of anti-immigration sentiment. [6] [7] Anti-Somali sentiments sometimes overlap with Islamophobic sentiments and racism in the United States.
On 30 October 2015, Asma Jama (a Muslim woman of Somali descent and Kenyan nationality) was viciously beaten for speaking Swahili in an Applebee's on the outskirts of Minneapolis. The perpetrator of that violence was charged with third-degree assault. In June 2016, two Somalis were shot after wearing their traditional clothing. [8] A week prior to the shooting, a Somali halal shop in the city was vandalized. [9] Minneapolis City Council member Abdi Warsame discussed anti-Somali sentiments in the aftermath of the shooting of Justine Damond by a Somali police officer. [10] In Dodge City, Kansas several Somali men were the victims of hate crimes ranging from racial slurs to serious bodily injury in 2016. [11] Due to the high concentration of Somali-Americans in Minnesota, anti-immigration sentiment has been used as a campaign talking point, including by candidate Donald Trump during his 2024 presidential campaign. [12] After Trump eferred to Somalis as garbage and called for the deportation of all people of Somali descent, [13] some female Somali Americans or female Horner Americans in Minnesota stated that they were religiously harassed, and others sexually assaulted by members of the U.S. ICE agency. [14] In the 2020s, the Somali community adjacent to the Dar Al Nur Community Center in Fairfax, Virginia were repeatedly subjected to physical attacks and destruction of property over a three-year period. [15] The Somaliphobic remarks led to a backlash from the Somali-American community and its supporters in Minneapolis, a city that has one of the largest Somali-American populations in the country with civic and business leaders in the city condemning the rhetoric as tarnishing. [16]
In December 2025, a viral video showed an employee at a Cinnabon bakery in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin, harassing a Somali couple with racial slurs after mocking the woman's hijab. Cinnabon subsequently released a statement on Twitter stating that the employee had been immediately fired, as their actions "do not reflect our values or the welcoming experience every guest deserves". [17] A fundraiser in support of the fired employee later raised nearly $100,000 on GiveSendGo; [18] meanwhile, a GoFundMe set up for the Somali couple raised over $1,000. [19]
There are also some pejorative terms that serve to dehumanize Somalis. The term skinnie became popularized with the film Black Hawk Down . The term has been said to allude to reducing Somalis to their humanitarian struggles [20] and National Public Radio has suggested that its usage deprives Somalis of their own point of view. [21] The term Abdi is also sometimes pejoratively used to refer to male Somalis. [22]
The Associated Press's stylebook suggested that Somali is the correct demonym or adjective, rather than Somalian. [23]
