To the editor:

When President Trump labeled Somali immigrants “garbage,” he weaponized presidential power to diminish an entire community. As novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie warned in her TED Talk “The Danger of a Single Story,” power lies not only in the ability to tell another person’s story, but to make it the definitive story of that person.

Yes, some Somali Americans in Minnesota have been implicated in financial fraud. That fact should be reported, but it should never become the sole lens through which we view an entire community– thousands of Somali families including refugees, healthcare workers, business owners and students.

The Somali American story includes triumphs over war and displacement, civic engagement in American politics, and contributions to Minnesota’s economy. When politicians or the media reinforce the “single story” of crime and corruption, they obscure a broader truth.

Adichie reminds us that “stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.”

To honor the history of immigration in America, we must refuse the temptation to see any community through one distorted frame. It is our duty not to amplify division, but to tell stories that recognize our shared humanity.

Terry Hansen

Grafton