John Palmer, a former university professor, has always had a cause. For decades he urged Minnesota officials to face the dangers of drunken driving and embrace seatbelts. Now he has a new goal: curbing the resettlement of Somali refugees in St. Cloud, after a few thousand moved into this small city where Mr. Palmer has lived for decades.
Every weekday, he sits in the same spot at Culver's restaurant — the corner booth near the Kwik Trip — and begins his daily intake of news from xenophobic and conspiratorial sites, such as JihadWatch.org, and articles with titles like "Lifting the Veil on the 'Islamophobia' Hoax." On Thursdays, Mr. Palmer hosts a group called Concerned Community Citizens, or C-Cubed, which he formed to pressure local officials over the Muslim refugees. Mr. Palmer said at a recent meeting he viewed them as innately less intelligent than the "typical" American citizen, as well as a threat.
"The very word 'Islamophobia' is a false narrative," Mr. Palmer, 70, said. "A phobia is an irrational fear." Raising his voice, he added, "An irrational fear! There are many reasons we are not being irrational."
Kim Crockett, the vice president and general counsel of a conservative Minnesota think tank called the Center of the American Experiment, said she intended to eventually sue the state and challenge the resettlement program in court.
"I think of America, the great assimilator, as a rubber band, but with this — we're at the breaking point," Ms. Crockett said. "These aren't people coming from Norway, let's put it that way. These people are very visible."
In St. Cloud, some opponents of the refugee program have taken the introduction of non-pork options in the local public schools as an attack on their way of life.
One woman, who declined to give her name after the group discussion, bemoaned the city's so-called no-go zones, or the areas where white residents said they felt so uncomfortable with the Somali-American presence that they would not return — a shopping mall, a community housing center and Beaver Island Trail, a hiking area that borders the Mississippi River.
"They were just —" she said, searching for the words to describe the offending behavior of the Somali-Americans. "They were just walking around."
Whole piece is worth a read.
