No, it is not about piracy or
Al-Shabaab bombing in Africa. It is actually about something that is work-related.
In a White House conference addressing the issue of stopping extremist violence
(Oops, there we go again), Vice President Joe Biden expressed his positive
attitude toward Somalis. He said he
knows them and has in fact some Somali friends. Anyone who went with him to the
train station, he told the press, will see his connection with the Somalis. “I have great relationships with them because
there is an awful lot driving cabs and [they] are friends of mine.” As if to punctuate the message, Biden added:
“I am not being solicitous. I am being serious.”
After Biden’s statement, it was a
shock-and-awe moment. All of sudden, he has been accused of stereotyping
Somalis. How dare Biden say that about Somalis, many questioned. Doesn’t he
have any modicum of sensitivity? Critics said that there is more to Somalis
than cab driving.
First, I did not know that the
American VP is still taking the train to his hometown in Wilmington, Delaware.
Second, Biden is a veteran politician, but he is unique in a way because he
operates without a filter. In other words, he has been one to speak his mind.
After he speaks up and there is uproar, Biden has a tendency to apologize to
calm the storm. “My statement was taken out of context,” he would say. That is
when he resorts to being a typical politician.
However, Biden is right this time
about Somalis and cab driving. He has nothing to apologize for. Many Somalis in
urban areas are cab drivers. That is a fact. Of course, not all Somalis are
cabbies. Biden only spoke about the ones he has known, the cabbies at the
Amtrak Station. Somalis were not always associated with taxi driving in
America. This is a new phenomenon.
In the 1980s, I moved from Ohio
to California. Then, there were many Ethiopians who worked as taxi drivers or
parking lot attendants. In essence, the Ethiopians dominated these two lines of
work. In the early 1990s, Somalis started arriving in California. After a while,
the Ethiopians moved on to other careers; a few stayed in the taxi business but
as owners rather than drivers. Many years later, Somalis entered the field and
cab driving became the favorite job among many because of two reasons: It did
not require fluency in English and it gave these taxi drivers a chance to get
together with fellow countrymen and talk about politics. There is another sinister
motive for some because the taxi work, which is mostly cash-based, can be
underreported to both the welfare agency and to their wives.
I have always wondered why so
many educated Somalis drive a taxi. I can understand the ones with limited
skills being cabbies and the ones who are doing it for a short period, but why do
the rest make it a career? I have seen
former government officials in Barre’s regime driving taxis. Some were
ministers and others directors of government agencies.
The saddest case was a Somali
professional in California who drove a taxi in the weekends. When his son
graduated from high school, the young man became a cabbie. I talked to his parents
about the matter but the father gave me an interesting response: “My son has to
drive a cab because I have relatives back home to support.” I asked the father
if he had thought of his son going to college, getting an education and then
being in a better position to support his family. The father kept quiet.
I have two anecdotes about
Somalis and cab driving.
Many years ago in a California
court, a judge asked me if there were any Somali-speaking therapists or psychologists
in the city so he could refer a Somali defendant to them. I answered no.
“Are you kidding?” the judge
exclaimed.
“None,” I reiterated.
The judge fidgeted and kept
starring at the defendant’s case file. He was probably asking himself why a
10,000-strong Somali community in a major California city has not yet produced
a specialist after being in the state over 20 years.
“No medical doctor either?” he
asked curiously.
“Your Honor, not yet,” I said,
“But fortunately we have a lot of cab drivers.”
The judge looked at me in
disbelief and exploded: “But I am not going anywhere!”
The other story is about my university
studies many years ago. I was accepted by the University of Chicago to do an
advanced degree. I became ambivalent as to whether to leave California, where I
had a good graduate fellowship, or go to the University of Chicago, a private
institution, which offered me only a tuition waiver. At the time, I had a
family with two young children. I asked a veteran professor at that university
how the graduate students in Chicago survived in that very expensive city.
“Well, there are fifth-year doctoral students who drive cabs,” he answered, sympathetically.
Frankly, I was stupefied but at the same time I thought these students at least
saw taxi driving as a temporary means to survive to obtain their degrees.
I have a friend in Mogadishu who
is a successful businessman. He did not leave the country when many fled in
1991. He called me one day. “Hassan, what is wrong with you diaspora people?”
he inquired. I asked him what the problem was. “Well, there are many cab
drivers from North America everywhere in Mogadishu who all want to be either
cabinet ministers or parliamentarians and nothing else.” His anger was understandable
because he was wondering, in his mind, if the Somalis abroad have produced any
other careers. That was a typical Joe Biden moment!
Some solace comes to my friend,
the businessman. There have been some high-ranking Somali officials or celebrities
who were once cabbies but they had moved on. They include two presidents of
Puntland, one Puntland VP, a federal Attorney General, cabinet ministers, and a
famous female singer, to mention a few.
I would like Somalis in the
diaspora to approach cab driving as a transitory job, not a career. There is so
much our community can do because opportunities abound in North America. It
starts with ambition, then discipline and hard work. It will only be then that other
nationalities will recognize our brains, skills, and contribution.
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