No one noticed until the world got woke, but it turned out that Minnesota’s state flag was racist and white supremacist. That would never do, and so the State Emblems Redesign Commission went to work to choose a new flag that would reflect the realities of today’s brave new diverse, multicultural Minnesota. On Friday, they picked a new flag, subject to a bit more tweaking before the end of the year, and the commission did a terrific job: their new banner does indeed reflect the new Minnesota. Not everyone, however, thinks that’s a good thing.

The bad old Minnesota flag reflected the realities of a vanished America: it depicted a farmer plowing in the foreground while a Native American is riding a horse in the opposite direction in the background. The two figures are not interacting, and there is no indication of any discord between them, but one could conceivably understand the image as the white man supplanting the Native American as the owner and developer of the land, while the land’s original owner rides off into history.

It’s easy to see how that would not be acceptable to today’s Minnesotans, and why the Minnesota of Keith Ellison and Ilhan Omar would need, and indeed demand, a new flag that properly represents the fact that this is no longer the Minnesota of Hubert Humphrey, Harmon Killebrew and Mary Tyler Moore. And oh boy, did they get one.

The Minnesota media focused on the fact that the new flag features an abstract rendering of the shape of the state itself, plus a star, in keeping with its nickname, the North Star State. MPR News reported Friday: “What’s striped and shows a blocky figure of Minnesota and an eight-point North Star? Minnesota’s new state flag.” The Star Tribune said the same thing, albeit a trifle more sedately: “Minnesota’s next flag will feature an abstract shape of the state with an eight-pointed white North Star on its hoist.” No one who read these reports, however, would get any idea of what has raised eyebrows about the new flag.

The abstract Minnesota shape and the star are on the left side of the flag. Unmentioned is the fact that the design the commission chose, which could still be changed before year’s end, features three stripes on the right side. Are they red, white, and blue, to reflect Minnesota’s status as the thirty-second state to join the American Union? Come on, man! This is the new Minnesota we’re talking about, not the bad old systemically racist, white supremacist one. The new flag’s stripes are instead white, green, and blue.

White, green, and blue? Where did they get those colors? The new Minnesota flag bears a striking resemblance to the flag of Jubaland, a state in southern Somalia. Both flags feature one star on a blue field on the left and white, green, and blue stripes on the right. The flag of the new, woke Minnesota also shares numerous elements with the flag of Puntland, another Somali state. The Puntland flag also features white, blue, and green stripes and a single star, although in this case the star is centered within the top stripe, rather than being featured in a field on the left.

Minnesota, of course, is home to the largest Somali community in the United States. The results have not exactly been a resplendent advertisement for multiculturalism. The most significant contribution that Minnesota’s Somalis have made to the nation is sending Ilhan Omar (D-Mogadishu) to the House of Representatives. Also, as Fox News reported in 2019, “More men and boys from a Somali American community in Minneapolis have joined – or attempted to join – a foreign terrorist organization over the last 12 years than any other jurisdiction in the country.”

The new flag’s adoption of Somali flag colors strongly implies that this community of new Minnesotans, despite the predilection of all too many of its members for jihad terrorism and far-left antisemitic congresswomen, is in the driver’s seat. Popular podcaster Tim Pool was succinct in his comment on the new Minnesota flag: “Yall are conquered.”

Yall are conquered https://t.co/lUzpdgVTc5

— Tim Pool (@Timcast) December 17, 2023

That certainly is how it looks. Instead of expecting the new Somali arrivals in Minnesota to become American, adopting American values, the new flag appears to be signaling that Minnesota has become Somalia. And given the prevailing idea these days that immigrants must retain their own customs, traditions and mores rather than adopting those of their new land, the North Star state is likely to get more and more Somali as the days and years inexorably pass.

Article posted with permission from Robert Spencer