We’re at the point where pretty much every square-inch of the Shiloh Hendrix racial slur controversy has been debated and overanalyzed ad nauseam. It’s an n-bomb that, we’re told, rivals the destructive power of anything we dropped on Hiroshima or Nagasaki. But despite all of the coverage, probably the single most important aspect of the story — which is how exactly Minnesota woman Shiloh Hendrix ended up in a playground with two individuals “of Somali heritage” in the first place — still hasn’t been widely discussed. And that’s too bad, because that’s the part of the story that elevates it beyond a discussion about Shiloh Hendrix and language policing. It’s a question that has significant relevance to every American citizen. So it’s worth asking: Why exactly were those two individuals 8,000 miles away from Somalia? And what are so many Somalis doing in this country, and in particular in Minnesota?
We’ll start with the specific location of this now-infamous incident, the city of Rochester. Rochester is the third-most populous city in the state of Minnesota. It originated as a humble stagecoach stop for travellers between St. Paul and Iowa before a part-time farmer and surgeon named William Mayo put the town on the map. During the Civil War, Mayo (who was born in England) moved to Rochester and began examining draftees to the Union army. Within a few years, he established what would become the Mayo Clinic — which now consistently ranks as the best hospital in the country, if not the world. Rochester, in other words, is an example of American excellence. To the extent that foreign nationals moved into Rochester, like William Mayo, it was to make the city a much better place for everyone.
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