MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Anne is White and in her 30s and works in tech, as many in Minneapolis do. I talked to her on the Skyway, because outside it was as cold as the planet Hoth, and when I asked about the massive fraud scandal involving the Somali community, she had a telling response.

“It’s hard to care much about it when ICE is disappearing Somalis on the streets,” she said.

This was, in fact, rather loquacious compared to most people I spoke with, or tried to speak with about the issue. The vast majority simply shut down at the mention of the topic. Most faces took on an expression that seemed to say, “We don’t talk about that.”

While there were a handful of Minnesotans I met who expressed real frustration over the Somali-linked Feeding our Future bilking the government for millions, it was by far the minority. Interestingly, the only people I met who would directly criticize the Somali community were Hispanic.

DAVID MARCUS: SOMALI POWER SURGE RAISES THE QUESTION MINNESOTA AVOIDS — WHERE’S ASSIMILATION?

Jack was a good example of this attitude from the White population. A late millennial, and again a software engineer, he said, “Lots of people commit fraud, so why are [Somalis] being singled out?” He would eventually add, “I don’t even really know what assimilation means.”

This attitude, a mixture of White guilt and apathy, was also clear in Cedar-Riverside, the locus of the Somali community. On the faces of the few remaining non-Somali businesses, “We Love Our Somali Neighbors” blasted the marquee at the Cedar Cultural Center.

Down the block, at a hot dog shop called the Wienery, was another pro-immigration sign in the window. It was reminiscent of 2020, when shops put Black Lives Matter signs up like lamb’s blood over the lintel to protect themselves from rioters.

DAVID MARCUS: MINNESOTA’S BOTCHED LEGAL WEED ROLLOUT REEKS OF DEI, CORRUPTION AND TIM WALZ

In Woody Allen’s movie “Annie Hall,” there is a scene in which his parents are arguing because the maid is stealing. The father says, “She’s a [Black] woman from Harlem . . . who is she going to steal from if not us?” That is very much how the White population of Minneapolis seems to be treating the fraud scandal, even as the tab for taxpayers tops $1 billion.

And it goes beyond just the current COVID money scandal. The state’s legalized marijuana program is also in shambles because of wokeness and DEI, with so much emphasis placed on putting the marginalized, or in the language of the state, “special equity applicants,” in charge, that the whole system is broken and quite possibly corrupt.

The local news media, to the extent to which you can even call it that, is just as fueled by White guilt, with 90% of its coverage a negative spin on ICE enforcement, and 10% a kind of “Republicans Pounce” apologia over the fraud scandal.

EXPERT REVEALS KEY FACTOR THAT LED TO MASSIVE MINNESOTA FRAUD SCHEME

You almost have to hand it to the Democrats, or in Minnesota, the Democratic-Farm-Labor Party, for realizing that they can get away with almost anything as long as they claim to be the protectors of the downtrodden Somali community.

What might be most amazing about this trick is that while liberals try to convince us that members of the Somali population are the victims of racism, I found no racism at all. In fact, I saw much the opposite — the Somalis have all but a protected status in the minds of Minnesota’s White voters.

It also must be noted that, as with many mid-sized American cities, the denizens of downtown don’t feel affected by the corruption. Just as neat, necktied Portlanders are happy to step over dead junkies en route to brunch, Minnesotans don’t feel the impact of the fraud connected to the community.

MINNESOTA LAWMAKERS VOW NEW CRACKDOWN AFTER $1B FRAUD MELTDOWN THEY SAY WALZ LET SPIRAL

Add to this, that to the extent Somali immigrants are to be seen in the Twin Cities, they are the servants, the behind-the-scenes hotel workers and Uber drivers. As with Woody Allen’s fictional father, the people in Minneapolis are willing to look the other way when the maid steals a little.

The only conclusion that I could come to is that if Minnesota is to pull out of its nosedive into full-blown corruption, it must be voters in the rest of the state who will have to move the needle. After all, as she correctly points out, most of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s voters are White, not Somali.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

I went to Minnesota expecting to find anger over billions of dollars stolen from kids, but I can only find what I find, and what I found was an attitude that graft, by the right people, is almost viewed as an acceptable form of reparations. 

Far from being cowed by this scandal, for which they are much to blame, hapless Gov. Tim Walz and Omar have been riding a wave of faux outrage over an ocean of White guilt. For now, it’s working, and it’s hard to see what can possibly make it stop.