ABC 6

A Somali family in Rochester woke up Sunday to find "KKK' and a swastika spray-painted on their driveway.

Last weekend, for the second time in just over a year, unknown vandals spray-painted "KKK" and a swastika onto the house of a Somali family in Rochester.

Muslim civil rights leaders aren't taking the latest incident lying down. Lori Saroya, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Minnesota, is calling on the FBI to investigate.

"It just sends a message that some people aren't welcomed in our community," Saroya told MPR. "That's just a very unfortunate message to send because the Somali community is an integral part of the Minnesota community in general." More >>

Jaime Hokanson, Indymedia

Thomas planned to drive an inferno-on-wheels into St. Paul's Mexican consulate.

Joseph Thomas, a 42-year-old Mendota Heights resident, had a sick notion of how he could get America talking about immigration issues.

According to a federal affidavit obtained yesterday by the Associated Press, Thomas told an undercover agent he wanted to steal a pickup truck, fill it with oil and gas, drive it into St. Paul's Mexican consulate, then set the inferno-on-wheels ablaze with a road flare. His hope was that the dramatic attack would get the country talking about immigration and amnesty issues ahead of November's presidential election.

Last month, Thomas and Sam Johnson, a 31-year-old Austin resident, were indicted on drugs and gun charges, respectively, and the FBI revealed that the two stockpiled weapons and ammunition while making plans to attack the government and minorities.

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David Brauer

Thirty years ago, Minneapolis businesses could get away with this.

Legendary but now-closed chicken wings joint Shorty & Wags used to be located at 3753 Nicollet Ave. S. in Southwest Minneapolis. With Shorty retired and living in northern Minnesota, the commercial building is now in the market for a new tenant and being renovated.

The renovations recently revealed an interesting piece of Minneapolis history -- the racist signage for Art Song's, another legendary wings joint that used to serve greasy fare from that very same storefront. The sign, covered up when Wags took over the property sometime around the end of the Carter Administration, hadn't been visible for roughly three decades.

Journalist of all trades and longtime Southwest resident David Brauer spotted the sign while waiting to get a flat tire fixed yesterday, then snapped a photo and shared it on his Twitter account. We reached Brauer to ask him about his recollections of Song's and its racist sign.

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Grover said Johnson's AD told him he wants an Asian coach.

​Michael Grover had a rough season last year as head coach of the freshman baseball team at St. Paul's Johnson Senior High -- his team lost all but two games.

In fairness, it's tough to field a good baseball team at Johnson. 80 percent of the school's students are poor enough to qualify for free or reduced lunches, and many bounce from one guardian's house to the next, making it difficult to commit to school sports.

Still, getting the axe after a 2-win season is understandable. But being told part of the reason for your firing is because you're white, and the school wants to recruit more Asian players? That's just not cool.

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In order to compete in NCAA playoff tournaments, UND must scrub all Fighting Sioux references and images from its gear.

​Late last month, the NCAA told UND the school "must forfeit competition" unless it scrubs the "hostile and abusive" Fighting Sioux name and Indian head logo from gear worn by athletes, school band members, cheerleaders, dancers, and mascots.

UND officials have apparently decided not forfeiting is more important than preserving the controversial nickname, as on Saturday the school's women's hockey team took to the ice as The Team With No Name during a 5-1 NCAA tournament loss to Minnesota.

Fighting Sioux lettering and logos were removed from everything from uniforms to bag tags to ensure UND complied with the NCAA's no-Fighting Sioux policy. UND's women hockey players took the ice wearing the team's regular road uniforms, which simply read "North Dakota" on the front.

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Duluth News Tribune

White supremacists are confronted by counter-protesters outside Duluth City Hall on Saturday morning.

​It probably wasn't the sort of showing members of the Supreme White Alliance had in mind, but really, what else did they expect?

Eleven members of the white supremacist group took part in an anti-Un-Fair Campaign march in downtown Duluth on Saturday morning, only to be vastly outnumbered by counter-protesters, some of whom eventually pelted the white supremacists with snowballs.

Four anti-racists were arrested on disorderly conduct charges.

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A referendum may decide the fate of UND's Fighting Sioux nickname this June, but the NCAA is already out of patience.

​The NCAA is officially out of patience when it comes to the University of North Dakota's controversial Fighting Sioux nickname.

In a letter sent to the UND provost yesterday, Bernard W. Franklin, the NCAA's chief inclusion officer, wrote that UND "must forfeit competition" if it does not scrub the "hostile and abusive" Fighting Sioux name and Indian head logo from gear worn by athletes, school band members, cheerleaders, dancers, and mascots.

UND had been planning to use the name and logo until a possible June referendum that could result in the school dropping the Fighting Sioux for good, but it's possible that the NCAA's hard-line letter will prompt UND administrators to drop the nickname sooner.

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Hard to see racism when you're white? Not when hundreds of white supremacists are marching down your streets.

​This Saturday should be an interesting one up in Duluth.

Backers of the Un-Fair Campaign's controversial "It's hard to see racism when you're white" billboards have scheduled a pro-racial-justice counter-rally set to happen concurrently with a white nationalist group's pro-white rally.

The racial justice group is meeting at 10 a.m. at the Aerial Lift Bridge --  at the same time, the white nationalists will be gathering nearby at Duluth City Hall.

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83 UMD students have signed a pledge vowing not to act like asses during games.

​Some of UMD's student cheering section is apologetic about the offensive chants unleashed on the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux during a home hockey series earlier this month.

During a February 11 game, UND fans visiting Duluth for the series reported that they heard fans in UMD's student section chanting "smallpox blankets" and other racist phrases at UND's mascot.

In response, UMD Athletic Director Bob Nielson sent a letter to student season ticket holders characterizing the smallpox blankets chant as "hostile and racist" and said a repeat of such behavior in the future could result in immediate removal from the arena. Now some students have started an online campaign in hopes the incident won't be repeated.

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UND's Fighting Sioux nickname violates NCAA rules.

​The University of North Dakota's athletic teams will be known as the Fighting Sioux at least until June, when a referendum may determine whether the school keeps the nickname permanently.

But, referendum or not, some of UND's traditional competitors have already had enough of the Fighting Sioux, and are refusing to compete against the school until the nickname is changed.

Regardless of what you think about the controversial nickname, the fact of the matter is that the NCAA sanctions schools with tribal logos and/or nicknames, including UND, that are deemed to be "hostile and abusive."

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