And if he had, he might be deported back to Sudan. That’s just what seemed to happen to young black men in Fort Wayne. No matter what had gone on there-or whether Taha had been involved-she assumed he’d been arrested. Wedad now felt simmering, low-level anxiety every time anyone left the house.Īround 6 P.M., a cousin of the Omars called with news: 808 was surrounded by police cars. One of their younger brothers was called a "nigger" at a nearby gas station a passerby yelled “Go back to your country!” at their 8-year-old sister as she walked to school wearing her hijab. Or what if he’d gotten in a fight? He wasn’t a fighter, but ever since Donald Trump announced his presidential campaign, the subtle racism the Omars routinely dealt with-what Wedad thought of as “smile-in-your-face racism”-had grown into outright threats. What if the police had hassled him again? He’d already appeared in front of a judge, green card in hand, after a police officer stopped him on a day when he’d forgotten his driver’s license. Taha’s cousins Muhannad and Mohamed Tairab lived there friends and family stopped by at all hours to listen to music, send Snapchats, and record Facebook videos.īy dinnertime, there was still no sign of Taha. That house-three stories tall, with dingy white aluminum siding and chipped green trim-was one of the last ones standing on its block in the predominantly black east-central side of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and served as a makeshift hostel for Sudanese Muslim immigrant men like Taha. He was probably at the old Victorian house at 808 East Lewis Street with his friends, she figured. Wedad borrowed a neighbor’s car to pick up their younger siblings from school and texted Taha again: Where are you? When are you coming home? And besides, he had the family car, the only one to go around in their family of 10. ![]() It wasn’t like Taha, as he was known, to ignore her texts and calls. That morning, a frigid late- February day in 2016, he’d dropped their younger siblings off at school, then gone radio silent. She hadn’t heard from her younger brother, 23-year-old Mohamedtaha, for hours.
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