Ilhan Omar

Politician

1981-10-04

Quotes by Ilhan Omar

• My kids are the reason I continue to strive for something better. They know - as kids who are Muslim, Somali, black Americans - that they've always been part of a struggle and that change isn't easy.

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• I am not a Somali representative. I am not a Muslim representative. I am not a millennial representative. I am not a woman representative. I am a representative who happens to have all of these marginalized identities and can understand the intersectionality of all of them in a very unique way.

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• Many in the Somali community are excited to vote and support candidates who have shown an ability to lead with integrity and not use props and gatekeepers to get their votes.

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• What I always emphasize is that I am a representative who happens to be Somali.

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• I was always made aware of inequality in society, that there was a class system. In Somalia, we have clan structures. My mother's family is ethnically not Somali, and so we spoke often about what it meant to be 'other' in that way.

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• We must see others' struggles as our own, and their success as our success, so we can speak to our common humanity.

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• I think a big part of my faith teachings is to work together towards equality: that we're all created equal, and under the eyes of God, we all have a right to freedom and to access our rights equally.

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• No Minnesotan should ever experience preventable health risks from breathing polluted air or from drinking unsafe water.

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