Zora Neale Hurston
(TriceEdneyWire.com)—It was during the 1930s when renowned author Zora Neale Hurston popularized the African American proverb, “all skinfolk ain’t kinfolk.” While she didn’t invent the phrase, it highlights the unfortunate reality that a shared racial identity among people does not automatically translate into racial loyalty and shared community commitment. Malcolm X would later use the phrase.
It is a powerful reminder of the challenge of maintaining racial solidarity when justice, fairness, and human dignity are under attack. Just because people share the same color and ethnicity does not mean they share the same desire or concern to support one another. Ideally, the community needs to become a unified village where its members bond together when resisting any form of external oppression. Therefore, the community needs to become a “family.” And like any family, the internal differences should be put aside when there are multiple external threats to its members. But when you have “skinfolk” who are not kinfolk, their sense of alignment is more with the external threat, even when the threat is White supremacy. The word betrayal comes to mind when someone considered dependable violates trust, confidence, or loyalty. Betrayal comes in different forms.
In July of last year, Salman Fiqy stood in the front row behind President Trump during a campaign rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Fiqy, who first immigrated to the United States from Somalia in 2009, said he was proud to campaign for Trump. Now, things are different, and Fiqy’s support for the Republican Party is over. After threatening to end the Temporary Protected Status for Somalis in Minnesota, President Trump has called Somali immigrants living in the United States “garbage” and wants them to leave, claiming that “they contribute nothing.”
CBS News is reporting that ICE is now targeting Somali people with final deportation orders in Minneapolis and St. Paul. “We felt betrayal by the president, the one we organized for and did an outreach for,” Fiqy said. Imam Tawakal Ismail, a self-described religious leader in Minnesota, is joining Fiqy in disavowing his connection to the GOP at both the local and national levels. “We expected leadership that stands up for truth and justice. That did not happen.” Ismail said.
Donald Trump has always shown who he is as a man and president. This is his second term; therefore, Fiqy and Ismail should have already known what Trump stood for. It should be no surprise to them that Trump is not a man of character. It is not only Trump who betrayed the Somalis, but Fiqy and Ismail when they followed through on an opportunity for the GOP to gain further ground in the Somali community.
Ismail has released a statement expressing disappointment that Minnesota Republicans did not come out in support of the Somali people after the president’s derogatory remarks. What did they expect when Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans campaigned on the issue of mass deportation? Did Fiqy and Ismail feel comfortable in thinking that anti-immigrant and dehumanizing rhetoric targeted toward Hispanics wouldn’t catch up and apply to the Somali community? As Fiqy and Ismail aligned themselves with White supremacy, being labeled as garbage was the outcome. The Somalian people, like all human beings, regardless of their ethnicity, were created in the image of God, and God doesn’t create garbage.
The internal betrayal is not limited to the Somali community. As the African American community produced its share of Clarence Thomas’s, Ben Carsons, and Tim Scotts, the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was supported by Black MAGA despite its long-term damage to the upward mobility of the Black middle class. The short-lived initiative was effectively dissolved in less than one year. DOGE’s institutionalized changes have systematically harmed Black communities by attacking federal jobs, DEI, and civil-rights infrastructure, and the flow of grants that disproportionately support Black workers, institutions, and neighborhoods. Black workers, compared with other segments of the population, are significantly overrepresented throughout the federal workforce. As a result, federal jobs have become a pipeline into the middle class and Black earning power. Thousands of positions in agencies such as Education, HUD, Social Security, Treasury, and the Veterans Administration, where Black employment is concentrated, were targeted for thousands of job eliminations. Many Black families relied on these federal positions to sustain homeownership and intergenerational stability. The same is true with federal programs designed to support Black businesses.
The Department of Education’s recent reclassification and downgrading of degrees will disproportionally harm Black women. The holders of professional degrees related to education, social work, counseling, public administration, criminal justice, and health administration are “community-building” and “caregiving” individuals who are Black women in large numbers. The long-term impact is cruel. Not only will this hurt Black economic mobility, but the long-term service to the most vulnerable people within Black and Brown communities may never recover. At least Salman Fiqy and Tawakal Ismail eventually woke up and spoke in defense of their kinfolk.
(David W. Marshall is the founder of the faith-based organization TRB: The Reconciled Body and the author of the book “God Bless Our Divided America.”)