People who are racist to Somalis in real life probably already hold prejudiced views in the first place and hence racist posts on Twitter won’t necessarily make them racist, but rather reinforce their prejudices.
I think we also need to be balanced and not try to take on/ consume content from every maniac and let it adversely affect our mental health. Europe is going to see a rise in racist vitriol in the next decade, thus we need to be prepared by forming solutions to combat threats to Somali communities emerging from racists mobilising on Twitter especially when there are major incidents linked to Muslims.
Also, some of us need to let go of the extreme attachment to the stuff upper lip model and trying to constantly steer discussions on racism against Somalis in a direction which downplays people’s experiences. If you’re a man, or you have a vehicle, or you a graduate working in a skilled field with with white liberal professionals- your experiences aren’t exactly going to mirror that of Somalis living in poor white areas or who travel without a vehicle as a Muslim female at night. Experiences also differ from country to country and even with regions. UK poor cadaans are very different culturally to some other Europeans when they outnumber you. Somalis who live in mainly ethnic Areas and only deal with white liberals in the workplace sometimes have a skewed understanding the experiences of other Somalis. A few years ago I had to intervene in a family situation where some of my family members were on the verge of being investigated as criminals following an altercation with some white families in South East London. The police failed to record and did not give the statements of my family member alleging racist comments about Somalis by the other families. We got a swift apology after some harsh words, but imagine if I hadn’t intervened?
As I wrote previously, Somalis seem to be more vulnerable to harassment and racist attacks since brexit and whenever violent incidents terror/mental health incidents involving Muslims happen. People who link to Somalis to these incidents or sensationalise Somalis criminality do fuel some of these attacks against Somalis. The problem is that many incidents against Somalis were recorded as racism against black Africans.And many incidents btw were not reported to the police.
A few recent studies in Camden and Bristol show that some Somalis have seen an increase in racist incidents and attacks since Brexit and the rise of the alt right . The situation was so bad for some that they stopped wearing hijabs and some hooyos became afraid to let their children play outside.
