The "Somalian" slurs have finally come for the Syracuse city flag
Racists have started calling the Syracuse city flag "Somalian." I traced the insult back to Minnesota's state flag and how it traveled nearly 900 miles to my comments.
Over the last week I've received multiple comments on the Syracuse city flag.
They all regurgitated the same racist dogwhistle.
Some were just unapologetically racist, xenophobic and gross while staying on script.
Why am I getting all of these very specific "Somalian" comments now after three years of this flag being out in the world?
I checked. It started in Minnesota.
In December 2023, Minnesota chose a new state flag: a navy shape of the state, a light blue field, and a white eight-pointed North Star. Minnesota is also home to the largest Somali community in the country. So months before the flag became official on May 11, 2024, local racists had already decided it "looked like the Somali flag." It doesn't, really. It has blue and a star. But a discerning, intelligent critique was never the point. The point was to tell their Somali neighbors that a state flag couldn't possibly include them.
Then our current president called Somali Americans "garbage" in December 2025, and a local slur went national. A Vermont school got flooded with hate for flying the Somali flag. This summer in Buffalo, someone cut down and stole a Somali flag outside City Hall, and the city got bomb threats. In Columbus, the pile-on came over a flag that was never even raised. And now it has arrived in my comments, nearly 900 miles from where it started, aimed at a flag about the sun rising over the Hills of Onondaga.
That's how this stuff travels. Nobody in my comments looked at the Syracuse city flag and instinctively thought of Somalia. They simply consumed and perpetuated a script handed to them. Blue plus star equals "Somalian."
1. Flag of Somalia | 2. State flag of Minnesota | 3. City flag of Syracuse, NY
If you're a part of our local Somali community here in Syracuse, send me a DM on Instagram. I'll find a way to get you a Syracuse city flag as a thank you for your contributions to our city and country.
I'm waiting for the racists to find the Black Excellence edition of the flag that celebrates our historic, local Black community. Their heads are going to explode.
